


The Inbetween

by SamanthaEvergreen



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cute, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2020-07-29 18:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 72,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20086921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamanthaEvergreen/pseuds/SamanthaEvergreen
Summary: What happens after the night at the mall when the Mind Flayer is killed up to when the Byers move with El? What did we miss? What if the people who died wanted to blamed someone? what if the Mind Flayer isn't done with El?...or is it something new haunting the town of hawkings? I hope you enjoy angst and fluff because there's a lot of it. ;)





	1. Chapter 1

AN/

So just finished watching stranger things last night for the 3rd time and I still can't get over how good this season was. I think it's my personal favorite out of the three. But something I was a little sad to see was the three-month jump. I know this is what they always do but can you imagine all of the things we missed? The pain and sadness everyone had to go through with the lost of Hopper? So this is a series taking place starting from the night at the mall when the Mind Flayer is killed, up to when the Byers move with El. I hope you enjoy angst and fluff because there's a lot of it. ;)

We can be heroes

Max's crying rang out around them as the world suddenly went quiet, though the booming of the fireworks still rang through El's ears as she held onto Max, her body shaking as she sobbed into El's blood-stained shirt.

"El are you alright?" Mike asked again, worry clear in his eyes as she looked away from the still body of billy, blood pooling around him now.

"I-I don't know..."

Mike nodded and without a word he wrapped his arms around them, the images of what just happened running over and over in their heads.

"Holy shit are you guys okay?!"

They looked up to see Lucas running towards them, Will behind him smiles on their faces, but it fell a moment later as they stopped a few feet away from them when they saw billy's body."

"Oh fuc-" Lucas started but his words were cut off as Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and Robin joined them.

Nancy went to her knees and grabbed Mike into a hug before quickly moving onto El, "Jesus Christ, I-I thought you were going to…"

"I know," El choked out letting the older girl embrace her even if it sent a wave of pain through her.

Jonathan kneeled down next to Billy and placed two fingers to his neck. But closed his eyes as a pained expression crossed his face a moment later and stood slowly. "He's gone."

They were all quiet a moment knowing that already given his wounds, but to have it confirmed made it into reality. Made this all a reality, because it had all happened too fast so it hadn't set in until it was over.

El looked up then as soft roaring sounded from somewhere above them and it seemed to be getting closer.

"Mike," she said softly but in the quiet it sounded like a shout.

"What's wrong?" he asked looking at her but El didn't look away from the ceiling as the sound got closer and closer as seconds passed.

Nancy looked up then as well and slowly stood up and carefully took out the gun she had taken from the guard earlier. Everyone seemed to hear the noise then and looked up to the sky looking for the source. El felt her breath pick up as it kept getting closer and closer knowing there was nothing she could do.

Mike grabbed onto her hand and El did the same to Max as suddenly the world was flooded with light, the sound deafening.

"Helicopters!" Will shouted over the noise.

El covered her ears trying to block out the sound, her head already spinning from the hits she had taken earlier. Moments later she heard footsteps as well and looked up to see men in uniforms running in all directions, guns in hand. Suddenly a few stopped and pointed their weapons at them, shouting for them to identify themselves.

"Hey, hey there you mind not pointing those fucking things at us!" Steve said hands out stepping in front of them, acting as a human shield.

"What he said," Robin added stepping up to stand next to him as Nancy and Jonathan moved to stand in front of the kids.

"Id yourselves!" the man shouted again.

"Really? we need to ID ourselves, we're the ones that killed that ugly bastard behind us!" Steve shouted back.

The men simply cocked their guns, their faces set, "We were told soviet spies were here, so we need to see your ID's," one of them said.

"Look we've seen some shit this past week, with the whole finding a secret underground base run by Russians, gotten stuck in an elevator for a good 12 hours, walked god knows how many miles only to have the living crap beaten out of us and drugged. So I'm sorry we must have forgotten them we were running for our lives!"

The room went quiet as everyone stopped and looked at him with surprise.

"Get those guns out of their faces right now," someone said from behind the men. They did as they were told and lowered their guns immediately and there stood a man in his 60s, hair grayer then the last time they had seen the man.

"Dr. Owens?" Will asked, confusion clear in his face as it was for the rest of them.

"You're mother gave as a message telling me to get my ass over here, so that's what I did. She said the gate was being reopened under this mall and I see it was..."

He looked behind them at the body of the Mind Flayer, small fires around it from the fireworks, then he saw the body of Billy and his eyes darken.

"Can one of you show us where the entrance is and then we'll deal with the rest."

"We can," Robin said and looked over at Steve who nodded.

El watched as Robin and Steve left a dozen men following after them as Dr. Owens turned back to them. "I need all of you to head outside can you do that?"

"Yes," Nancy said, "But what are you going to do with that….the Mind Flayer... it's made of...people, people from Hawkins."

Everyone seemed to make a face at that knowing there was nothing they could do for those people now.

"We're going to burn it. Burn it to ashes along with this mall," Dr. Owens said calmly and El smelled it then, the smell of gasoline.

She looked over and found men with red gasoline cans throwing the amber liquid on the monster that had been the embodiment of the Mind Flayer.

"You can't just burn the whole mall down," Lucas said, "That's crazy."

"It's the only way we can be sure that that thing can't come back, that none of this gets out. The people who turned into the Mind Flayer will be reported dead in the fire. The base will be sealed and built over. No one will ever know what happened tonight."

"What about Billy?" Max asked suddenly, her voice dry from her sobbing.

Dr. Owens looked down at her with a sorrowful face, "I'm sorry, but we can't take any chances of anything from the upside-down escaping."

Max let out a breath mixed with a sob but nodded as Dr. Owens looked away and started for the doors and followed after his men.

"We need to get out of here," Jonathan said and everyone nodded in agreement. Max and Mike stood and started to help El up, taking an arm and gently pulling her up to stand. But as she made it to her feet the world started to spin and the next thing she knew she was falling backward.

"El! El can you hear me?"

El opened her eyes back up to see Mike over her, fear and worry across his whole face as she lay on the floor, her head in his lap from where he must have caught her. "F-Fine," she tried but her voice only came out in a whisper.

"Shit," she heard someone say and looked up to see everyone looking down at her leg and saw then that the bandages were soaked in red with her own blood.

"Let's get her outside," Jonathan said, "I think I heard sirens so maybe an ambulance is out there. El I'm going to pick you up now okay?"

El nodded, her whole body hurt to the point she didn't care anymore what happened.

She felt Jonathan slide an arm under her knees and the other around her back and she did her best to wrap her arms around his neck as he lifted her up into the air.

She bit down on her lip to keep the pained scream in as they walked but a hiss escaped her lips all the same.

"Sorry," Jonathan said quietly as they made their way towards the front door.

"It's fine," El said as red and blue lights cast over them. Will ran forward and opened the door and they stepped out into the summer heat of the night.

Fire trucks and firemen stood waiting around and El wondered just how much power Dr. Owens had. He never seemed as cruel as Papa but in return, he could end this town with only a few words said to the right people.

"Hey over here."

They all turned to see Steve and Robin standing by a line of ambulances.

They hurried over and Jonathan sat her down on the end of one of the trucks as Steve and Robin joined them.

"Jesus, what happen to your shirt?" Steve asked Jonathan. They all looked down to see blood coating his front where her leg had bleed.

EMT's jumped into action than pulling him, Will and Nancy into one of the trucks. Max and Lucas into another.

"Sir, I can help you over here," one of the male EMT's said gesturing for Mike to follow him into another ambulance.

"I'm not going anywhere," Mike said and sat down next to her and took her hand as one of the EMT's started cleaning her leg.

The guy nodded and simply grabbed what he needed and started to clean the blood from his face.

El watched as Russians were led out of the building in handcuffs by the army men one after another as EMT's handed out blankets and someone patched up her forehead.

Soon smoked filled the air as all around the mall fires were started and with the gasoline it didn't take long for it to burn to the point that the fireman could get to "saving" the mall.

"Miss I believe you're going to have to go to the hospital. The bleeding won't stop without stitches."

El looked down at the man who had just finished applying another bandage and saw that it was already red. "No."

"Miss you don't understand you have to go to the hospital and have stitches done or you could bleed to death."

"No doctors."

"El," Mike started from where he sat next to her, a blanket wrapped around them, but his words were cut off as Will got up, running pass them.

El watched as he ran and met Mrs. Byers in a hug.

El felt her heart lift and stood up then not caring about the EMT's objections and the pain it caused her leg and started looking around for hopper, wanting to hear what had happened. Lights flashed all around her bathing the world in purple as mist from the water hoses rained down around them.

As seconds turned to minutes she felt her heart speed up and a cold feeling started to creep into her. Where was he, where was he, where was he. El felt her breathing pick up as she met Mrs. Byers eyes, a silent question in her own. Where is he?

Mrs. Byers shook her head slowly, tears in her eyes as she shook with a sob and El knew why.

She stood there frozen, tears finding a way to her cheeks in seconds as her heart stopped. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. She stayed safe like he had asked the best she could, stayed alive but he wasn't here to see that. Why hadn't he stayed safe, why wasn't he here!

"No!" she said out loud now, her voice thin and small. Her eyes burned with tears as her chest started to hurt, as if someone was crushing her heart from the inside. She started for the building, she didn't care what she had to do she was going to find him. With or without her powers

But she didn't even make it even a quarter of the way when her leg gave out and she fell to the ground hard.

"El!"

Mike was at her side instantly helping her to sit up. "El what's wrong, you're crying. Is it you're leg?"

She shook her head, tears blurring her vision as she pulled him into a hug her body shaking. "He told me to stay safe, he told me to stay safe and I did!"

Mike held her as she repeated her words over and over again her voice getting smaller and smaller. He ran a hand through her hair as he looked up to see Will talking to Mrs. Byers, as she confirmed what El already knew.

The world seemed to slow down in that moment as he looked around and took in the scene. Everyone seemed to catch on to what happened to Hopper in seconds as they all heard Mrs. Byers, say those words. "He didn't make it out."

No one looked at them and he saw the tears in the eyes of the other as the light caught them and he knew he was the same. Hopper had been a lying piece of shit a few times, keeping El locked away and threatened him but he done it because he loved El and wanted to protect her, loved her even more than him maybe.

"El?" Mike whispered noticing that she had stopped moving now. "El can you hear me?" he asked moving her so he could see her face and found her eyes closed and blood running from her nose.

"El!" Mike shouted shaking her a little to wake her up but it was no use. She had gone so pale, to pale, like a ghost.

"Help!" Mike said his eyes going wide as fear made his veins go cold the way it had when he watched her turn that Demogorgon to ash and she disappeared with it and he believed she was dead. "Someone help!" Mike shouted looking around as panic started to take over.

Suddenly EMT's were all around them and the next thing Mike knew they were lifting her onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.

"Do you know where her family is?" one of the EMTs asked as he placed a blanket over her pale frame.

"Right here."

Mike turned to see Mrs. Byers standing there, Will, Jonathan, Nancy, Max, Lucas even Steve behind her.

The EMT looked over them all, an eyebrow raised but he shook his head and when on. "Only two other people can ride in the ambulance."

Mike looked over at them all and met Mrs. Byers eyes and without a word they got in.

"We'll meet you there," Max said, her own eyes filled with worry matching the rest of them.

Mike nodded as the EMT closed the door and a second later they were off.


	2. Still here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AN /
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it took longer then I thought to write but I'm happy with the out come. I'll be trying to update this every two days.

"Eleven it's time to wake up now."

El turned away from the voice and opened her eyes slowly, her head hurt but she couldn't remember why, her thoughts coming too slowly as if she was underwater. Was she sick?...Maybe Hopper would make her a Triple-Decker Eggo Extravaganza and let her watch schoolhouse rock instead of having to study with books.

"Eleven get up now! We have testing to do today."

El sat up, her eyes going wide at the sound of the voice she believed she would never have to hear again.

Papa stood in the doorway of her old room, it wasn't the warm wooden colors of Hopper's cabin, but the stark white of the lab. The smell of lemon cleaner that covered the pain and sadness of this building assaulted her nose once again. A sliver ran down her spine as the hospital gown did nothing to keep the cold away.

"H-how did I get here?" El asked as she stood slowly from her white bed, the only thing in the room as she looked at the man who had taken her childhood, her birth mother's mind, her freedom and used her like a lab rat. "Where are my friends?"

"Don't you remember?" Papa said walking slowly towards her, his white lab coat stained with something red, his hair whiter then she remembered. "They didn't want you anymore."

"W-what," El breathed, her heart freezing, "Didn't want?"

"Oh my dear Eleven, after Hopper died and you lost your powers no one wanted you around, after all you put everyone in danger with the Mind Flayer after you and all. You can't protect anyone anymore, not even yourself."

Papa moved to stand in front of her and reached out to run a hand across her hair but she flinched away from him.

"Liar! Your lying, they would never let that happen! Mike would never let me be taken back!"

El reached out and focused on making him fly back into the wall but nothing happened and he only laughed. As if she was a puppy trying to scare away a bear.

"You can try as much as you want, but there's no escaping this time."

El shook her head, her breath coming faster and faster as panic started to take over as she looked down at her hands. Without thinking she pushed past him and started running.

This building had been the only place she had known since she could remember so she knew the way to get out, knew which halls to turn into and which would lead to punishment.

As she ran though she noticed how empty the halls were. No one was around, no other doctors, no staff, not even guards like before. Even the lights were dimmer. But she didn't let that stop her as she kept running, the only sound around was her own feet hitting the cold tile and her blood racing in her ears.

Finally, she reached the hall that would lead to the front doors.

She looked behind herself as she tried to catch her breath and saw no one was following after her. It was weird but she didn't have the time to think about it as she took off again and turned the corner to the lobby where she would be able to getaway.

But she stopped dead and let out a surprised scream. Papa stood where doors had once been, now walled over with white sheetrock.

"No.." El breathed, her heart sinking to the bottom of her stomach.

Papa smiled, his teeth showing white in the dark, "It's just you and me now Eleven. No one is coming to save you, so there's no point to this little game."

El shook her head and started to back away as tears burned at the corner of her eyes. She turned away and started running back but this time she didn't know where to go.

"Mike! Mike! Someone help me!" El screamed into the darkness as she slammed into one of the side walls as tears made her world turn to watercolors.

But she didn't stop, couldn't. She had to find a way out. She turned another corner but this time she wasn't met with another hall but dark water.

El let out a gasp and tried to stop herself but it was too late. She fell into the freezing water head first, her body went still a moment her veins turning to ice as her world turned dark.

After a moment she opened her eyes and saw she was in the sensory deprivation tank.

The glass reflected her image back to her, her scared face pale in the dark.

She swam up but just as she reached the top someone slammed the lid down. She hit it with her fists a moment but knew it was hopeless, how many times had she tried getting out before.

She swam down and over to the front of the glass and started to bang on it with all the strength she had left, a scream turned to bubbles escaped her lips.

"No one can hear you here Eleven, but it's okay no one can hurt you here as well," Papa said from behind the glass, his image blurry. "Remember what a told you all those years ago? You're safe with your Papa."

El stopped banging on the glass then as a dark shadow seemed to grow from the corner of the blurry room. She watched it get bigger and bigger until it engulfed the room, Papa and her tank.

For a second the world was silent as it lay dark then El jumped suddenly as the sound of someone tapping on the glass rang out around her, but with the room in darkness, she couldn't see a thing. Then she heard it. Whispering.

"You did this, You did this, You did this."

The voice was Billy's and it seemed to be getting closer and closer.

Suddenly something hit the glass so hard it sent cracks spidering down the tank like a river of ice ready to break.

El swam away from the ever forming cracks as whatever it was out there kept hitting the tank over and over again, the voice getting ever closer.

"You think you stopped us? You think we won't find another way in?"

El felt her chest start to ache as her brain screamed for air, the cracks forming faster and faster as water started to escape.

"We will find you and no one will save you this time!"

El had no choice but to suck in a deep breath filled with water as finally the glass broke and she was sent flying forward with the wave until she was on the floor choking.

"I will find a way back, no matter what I have to do, I will find my way back to you and this time no one can save you."

She looked up just in time to see the shadow Mind Flayer engulf her.

El awoke with a gasp, her eyes going wide as she looked around herself to see a hospital room. She sat up even when her body screamed at her for it and quickly took off the things in her nose. Something next to her started beeping but she didn't mind it as she started to take out the IV but stopped when she heard a door open.

El looked up to see Mike standing there, a bandage on his nose from the other night, his eyes wide as he looked at her.

"Mike?" El choked out, her voice dry and she wondered how long she had been asleep for.

For a moment Mike simply stood there looking at her like she was a dream come to life. Then the next thing she knew he was pulling her into a hug.

She let herself fall into him, his warmth calmed her racing heart that still beat to fast from the nightmare and the smell of his familiar clean clothing a comfort in this unknown place. "El you're finally awake, you scared me, you scared us all," he said running a hand through her hair and El heard the honesty in his words.

"How long have I been asleep?" she asked not letting go of him.

"Two days."

El pulled back surprised. "Two days?"

Mike nodded and took her hand into his own. "Yeah, the doctor said it was because of the blood loss from you're leg."

El looked away as that night came back to her in all its horrors and she felt her heart freeze.

"What about Hopper?"

Mike looked down and away from her. "El…"

"Hopper," she repeated, "What happened!"

Mike closed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak but the door opened again and Mrs. Byers came in with a graying female nurse.

"Hey you need to have your oxygen in," the nurse said walking over to the side of her bed and picked up the things that had been in her nose before. The nurse tried to put it around her head but El leaned away as far as she could without falling off the bed.

How many times had those men put things like that on her? How many times had they made her hurt with them.

"This isn't going to hurt you, now stop it," the nurse said grabbing at her.

"Get away from me!" El hissed.

"Okay, okay," Mrs. Byers said, coming over to them and gently pushed the older woman away. "You're scaring her."

"She needs to wear them," the nurse said annoyed.

Mrs. Byers took the tubes from her, "Fine, I'll get her to wear them but can you give us a minute."

The older woman looked annoyed but stepped back, "Fine, but I'll be back with her lunch and if she's not wearing them-"

"Will do," Mrs. Byers said cutting her off and basically pushed her out of the room and closed the door before returning to them and scooped El into a hug.

"How are you feeling honey?" she asked into her ear before pulling away and sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs next to Mike where he sat still holding her hand.

"My head hurts a little but I'm fine."

Mrs. Byers nodded and El saw than that she looked as if she hadn't slept in a while, with the deep dark circles under her eyes and when she looked at Mike she saw the same ones.

"You're not fine."

"Don't worry about us," Mrs. Byers said trying to put on a small smile but it didn't reach her eyes.

"Yeah you're the one in a hospital bed and all," Mike said and started to play with her fingers, maybe trying to get her to smile, but it didn't really help at the moment.

"What happened to Hopper?" El asked looking at Mrs. Byers gently pulling her hand away from Mike.

Mrs. Byers was quiet a moment before she spoke again, "Mike can you give us a moment?"

"Yeah, I'll go let everyone know she's awake," Mike said and left them to themselves.

They sat there a second before Mrs. Byers let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes before looking at her.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Byers started, but El cut her off.

"I don't blame you, so no sorrys, just tell me what happened down there. Tell me he...he didn't hurt."

Mrs. Byers bit her lip and El saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes. But she went on her voice hollow. "When we were about to close the gate one of the Russians who had been chasing us down found us and he and Hopper got into a fight."

She went into detail about how both men somehow made it onto the catwalk for the gate opener. How Hopper killed the Russian but ended up trapped on the wrong side.

"I had no choice, I knew he wanted you safe, he wanted you all safe. So I-I turned the keys."

By the time Joyce was done she was having a hard time talking because of the tears, she was trying to keep back.

El reached over and took her hand, for some reason she wasn't crying. All she felt was numbness. It was like someone had turned her feelings off like a light switch and she hadn't figured out how to turn it back on yet.

"It was fast?" El asked.

Mrs. Byers nodded.

It took El a long moment to remember how to breathe again, the horrible feeling of her heart shattering felt like it was consuming her.

"What's going to happen to me now?"

Her nightmare still felt too real even now in the sunlight. "They didn't want you anymore." still echoed in her head.

"Don't worry, I've spoken with Dr. Owens and he's agreed to let me take charge of you so you'll be coming to live with us. Me, Will and Jonathan."

El nodded as Mrs. Byers grabbed the things that had been in her nose and gently placed them back behind her ears. "There now that old lady can't come in and yell at you."

El tried to put on a little smile but she didn't think it reached her eyes.

The door opened again then and the nurse came back in with a tray of food but this time she was followed by a zoo of people.

"I don't see why there's still a two people limit on how many people can go into a room when there is clearly enough space for all of as, given we at the most take about three feet of space and a hospital room is 13 feet by 14 feet," Dustin said.

"Dude would you stop talking about feet," Lucas said.

"I'm just making a point."

El felt her heart lift a moment as she saw Dustin, Lucas, Max and Will all standing behind Mike.

"Holy shit your awake!" Dustin said and pushed past the nurse and into the room.

"I told you, kids, that-" the nurses words were cut off as the rest of her friends joined her in the room.

The next thing El knew she was being crushed in a group hug as everyone talked at once. "Have you seen the news?"

"El you look like crap."

"I bet you would feel the same after having your leg cut open and almost bleeding to death too."

"El did you hear I was on the news."

A moment later they were cut off as the nurse cleared her throat. "I told you all that you can't-"

"May I talk with you a moment," Mrs. Byers said to the nurse getting up.

The nurse let out an annoyed breath but nodded, "You all have five minutes," she said looking back at all of them before closing the door.

"Someone needs to take her on a date," Lucas said rolling his eyes.

"Lucas," Max hissed hitting him with her elbow.

"What! it's true," he said rubbing at his side.

"Guys," Will said softly shooting them a look.

"Right, sorry," Lucas said.

"Its okay, she does need a cool pill," El said.

"Cool pill?" Dustin repeated in question as he lifted open the lid to the food tray.

"She means chill pill," Mike answered.

"Hey, how many channels do you have on this thing?" Lucas asked as he picked up a remote for the tv that hung on the wall.

"That's not what we should be talking about," Max said taking it from him, then turned to El. "How is your leg?"

El let out a breath, she hadn't really wanted to think about her leg, but now that she did El realized she didn't actually hurt as much as she thought it would.

She moved the blanket to find her leg wrapped with clean bandages, no blood or anything.

"They did a good job stitching you up," Max said, "Does it hurt much?"

"It doesn't," El said.

"They probably have you on some pretty good painkillers then," Dustin said, "Hey they gave you chocolate pudding!"

El looked up to see him smiling as he held it out to her.

"Have it, I don't feel very hungry," El said sitting back.

"You should at least have the jello," Will said, "It's probably the best thing they have here."

She nodded but didn't say anything as the door opened again.

"Alright times up, everyone out," the nurse said coming back in, Mrs. Byers behind her.

"Someone does need some cool pills," Max said under her breath before she turned to El opening her backpack and pulled out a whole stack of Wonderwomen comic books. "These are the best ones out of the series, I know you'll love them."

"Thanks," El said, taking them.

"I got you this," Dustin said and handed her a walkie talkie, "I upgraded it so you can talk to Mike from here."

"I helped," Lucas added as she took it from him before they started for the door.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Will added giving her a fast hug.

"Yeah," El nodded and watched them leave.

"El I need to take everyone home but I'll be right back. The doctor said they're going to release you tomorrow so you'll be able to go home soon," Mrs. Byers smiled.

El nodded trying to look happy to be going home but it wouldn't really be home, not without hopper.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow then," Mike said leaning down and kissed her forehead gently and placed something into her hand.

She looked down to see a bag of M&Ms.

"I know your species likes them now," he said before he joined Mrs. Byers and closed the door behind them.

She looked down at the candy a moment, a small smile on her lips but it was gone in a blink. "Home," El said out loud to no one but herself. How could she go home when Hopper was dead?

"I'll find a way back."

El jumped and turned at the voice to see Billy standing by the door the way he had looked after the Mind Flayer had killed him, black blood still dripping down his mouth.

"We will be back."

She sat there frozen a moment as the light bulb above her started flickering. He took a step forward then and she snapped back to reality.

"Go away! " El screamed and threw her arms out to sent him away but he simply laughed and then in a blink of an eye he was gone replaced with the nurse opening the door.

"What's wrong?" she asked concerned.

"N-nothing," El said not looking away from where Billy had been.

"Well if you need anything use the call button please."

El nodded as she closed the door, leaving her alone once more.


	3. Soon

~Soon~

"After you," Jonathan said as he opened the hospital door as El tried not to fall on her face using the crutches the nurse had showed her how to use, but she just couldn't get used to the feeling yet, luckily she would only need them for a week.

Mike and Max walked on opposite sides of her in case she really did fall.

Mrs. Byers and Will waited by the car a few feet away, a door already open for her.

"You know you can keep the comics right," Max said as they stopped by the car as Jonathan went around and put her bag of clothes from the other night in back.

"I couldn't their yours," El said and handed them back.

Max let out a breath but took them, "Fine, but we need to have another sleepover so you can read the rest of them got it," Max said getting in.

El nodded as she got in next to her and Mike closed the door before going over to join Jonathan in the back.

Mrs. Byers started the car and they took off a moment later.

"So Dustin and Lucas will be waiting for us there right?" Will asked looking back at them as they drove.

"Yeah," Mike said from the back, "Nancy and Steve too."

"I can't believe Steve is going to help move," Max said.

"Who wouldn't want to see what Hopper has in that cabin," Mike said, "He probably has a map to all the bodies of the people who looked at El wrong."

Everyone seemed to smile at his words and even El couldn't help one herself.

She remembered the way he would look at people when they would stare at her when she first started going around town more freely, the not too quiet things he would say behind their backs. It had been embarrassing at the time, but now she wanted nothing more than to hear him say that Mrs. Miller shouldn't be looking at her when she should be worrying about her 84 cats if it meant he was still with them.

El snapped back to reality as Mrs. Byers turned on the dirt road that had become so familiar she could walk it blindfolded, the trees casting shadows over them as the cabin came into view.

Mrs. Byers pulled up and put the car in park before she turned to her.

"El if you want to wait in the car while we take care of this it's okay."

"No, I'll be okay," El said her voice sounding stronger than she actually felt.

Mrs. Byers nodded before she opened the door and got out everyone following after.

Jonathan went around and grabbed some empty boxes from the back as the rest of them started for the porch where Dustin, Lucas, Nancy and Steve stood waiting, already having boxes out and ready.

Mike wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her steady as they walked up the short set of stairs.

"We would have gotten started but we couldn't find the key," Nancy said.

"It's fine, I got it," El said and focused on the locks like she normally did. It had become so easy that she didn't even bother having a key. But nothing happened.

She let out a surprised breath as she took a step back. It had never taken more than a day and a half at most for her powers to recharge, but it had been three days and still nothing.

"El?" Mike asked concerned.

She looked up to see everyone looking at her, waiting.

"Sorry, I guess I'm still recharging. But there's a key on top of the door frame," she said looking down, her cheeks warm.

"That makes sense, you used your powers over and over again last week, it will probably take a few more days to reach full again," Dustin said as Steve walked over to the door and easily grabbed the dusty key from the top.

"Yeah, "Mike said reassuringly as Steve unlocked the door. "I bet you'll be back to kicking ass by next week."

"Who's ass is she kicking?" Max asked as she followed everyone into the cabin.

"Well school starts next month," Mike said helping her inside.

"Let's just focus on this right now," Mrs. Byers said and El heard the tone of something in her voice as if she knew something they didn't, but maybe it had to do with cleaning out the cabin.

"El where do you want us to start?" Nancy asked.

El looked around the place that had become her home, had been the first place she hadn't been scared of outside of Mike's house, had smiled in, had been happy in.

"I-I don't know," she said finally because she didn't. Didn't know where to start taking the life she'd known down.

"How about me and you start in your room," Max said, "And the others can just start going through things that you may want to keep."

El nodded and everyone started in different directions to start packing up.

Max took a box from Mike and she and El started for her room.

El opened the green door to her small room and looked across the few things she had.

A poster here and there, her peach radio on the dresser with a few stuffed animals along with her school books and other small things looked back at her.

"Let's start on your closet," Max said and opened the white door and started to take things out and put them in the box as El went over to her dresser and started to take her folded clothes out and put them in another box on her bed.

For the minutes it took her to mindlessly pack her things up she was happy to think of something besides the pain in her chest. That was until Max called out to her. "Hey, El what do you want to do with all of these stuffed animals?"

El looked up to see Max holding out a large shoebox full of little toys. El limped over to it and picked a small rainbow tiger up and held it a moment. The world seemed to slip away as the memory of the day she got it came back to her.

~

"Hey El I'm home and I have something for you," she heard Hopper call from the living room.

She opened the door to her room and peeked out the crack. It had only been a month since Hopper had found her in the snowy woods and she hadn't gotten used to other people yet, let alone a door she could open and close whenever she wanted.

"Come on," Hopper said spotting her, "It's a gift."

"Gift?" El repeated in question, never having heard the word before as she opened her door and took a slow step out of the warmth of her room.

"Umm yeah, a gift is a thing given willingly to someone without wanting something in return. A present."

"Present," El said as she eyed the paper-wrapped box in his hands.

"Yeah present," he said sitting down at the kitchen table, setting the box down in her spot. "I figure you missed Christmas day but you can still have the gift part."

"Christmas?" El asked sitting down in her chair looking down at the red paper with what looked like little green trees with lights on it.

"Let's just say it's a day where people give gifts out and eat too much food," Hopper answered, "Now open it up."

El gently grabbed one of the sides paper and started to pull down on it but stopped when she heard Hopper start to laugh.

"You don't have to be careful with it, go crazy kid."

El smiled then as she did what she was told and ripped at the paper, letting it fall to the floor in pieces until a brown box sat in front of her.

She looked up excited to find Hopper smiling at her as if he was the one opening the present instead of her.

She looked back down and slowly opened the lid to find eyes looking back at her. A smile broke across her face at the 20 or so stuffed animals and toys looking back at her.

She reached in and pulled out one and looked at it a moment.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's a tiger," he answered.

"Like tony the tiger from t.v.!" El said excitedly.

"Yeah sure," Hopper said.

She had pulled out each one of the new toys and spent the whole night learning the names of the animals he had gotten her before falling asleep watching Tales from the Dark Side next to him in the chair.

~

"El?" Max asked snapping her back to reality.

"Sorry," El said looking back up, "I'll keep this one, you...you can donate the others."

"Are you sure?" Max asked raising an eyebrow.

El nodded and turned away placing the tiger in the box of clothing, she bit her lip as she watched Max put the stuffed animals on the bed with the few other things she was giving away before she went back to cleaning out the rest of her dresser.

It didn't take long for her and Max to finish her room, leaving the furniture bare and empty.

"Are you sure this is all you want to take?" Max asked looking at the boxes as the others loaded them in the back of Mrs. Byers car from where they stood in the living room.

El looked around herself, even if they hadn't taken much it still felt so empty, almost cold in away.

"I'm sure," El said nodding.

"Hey, El what should I do with this?" Nancy asked from where she kneeled next to a box filled with folders.

El went over to her and gently took out one of them and opened it to find it was the papers and photo she had used to find her mother, along with the one on Kali.

El ran a finger down the old yellowing picture and for a moment she wondered what her life would have been if she hadn't been taken. Would it have been normal and less painful?

But then she wouldn't have met the people she loved now. "Keep," El breathed, her voice almost a whisper as she looked back up.

Nancy nodded and stood taking the box, not asking why or who the photos were of and she was grateful for it.

"Alright I think that's everything," Mike said as he stopped next to her, the poster that had been hanging on her wall in his hand along with her peach-colored radio. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," El said and started to follow after them but stopped suddenly, a sound catching her attention. She turned and slowly walked back in until she stood in the middle of the room trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from.

"El you okay?" Mike called back to her from where he and Max stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Fine, I'll be there in a second," El called back, not looking at them as she moved further into the house as the sound got clearer and clearer.

She stopped as the words rang out around her, sending a wave of goosebumps down her arm even in the July heat.

"I'm still here."

"Hopper," El said out loud in a whisper.

"No," the voice said from right behind her now.

El turned and found Billy standing inches away from her.

She took a surprised step back as a gasp escaped her lips.

"Hello El," he said, a wicked smile across his lips, "Surprised to see me?

El shook her head as she slowly backed away, "You can't be here, I saw you die," El said.

Billy took a step forward still smiling, "You really think you can get away from me that easy?"

El hit a wall then leaving her nowhere to go as he stopped in front of her.

"I died because of you. The Mind Flayer wanted you. You were the one it should have killed, not me," Billy whispered into her ear as she turned away from him.

"Billy saved me," El hissed closing her eyes, "He made that choice himself."

"You really think so?" He hissed back, "Is that what you're going to tell yourself when it's your friends at your feet. Just like Hopper they will die trying to save you. What are you going to do now that you can't protect the ones you love? Will you cry? Will you scream when there's nothing you can do?"

She felt something cold run down her cheek like a finger of a corpse making her gasp and open her eyes but found the room empty, the lamp on the kitchen table flickering.

She reached up as something warm ran down her cheek and found it was tears. She was crying and she didn't even know it.

"Oh, honey."

El looked up to see Mrs. Byers in the doorway before she walked over and took El into her arms.

"I know it hurts," Mrs. Byers said, "But don't keep it bottled up." She pulled away and held her at arm's length, "You can talk to me anytime you need understand?"

El nodded, but she didn't take her eyes away from the lamp as it gave one last flicker before going out.

"Come on," Mrs. Byers said gently and put a hand on her back guiding her towards the door.

El looked back once to see the cabin looking normal as ever, but a whisper reached her just before Mrs. Byers closed the door.

"Talk again soon."

~

AN/

Alright, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Sorry if the story feels like it's going a little slow but I promise things will pick up in the next few chapters as things really get going. But I also may not be able to post the next one until sometime next week since something came up, but I'm going to try my best to upload every few days. Anyway thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps.


	4. Home Sweet Home?

Home Sweet Home?

~

December 22, 1984

"So what do we need to get?" El asked Hopper, looking around Melvald's General Store taking it all in as best she could. It was the first place she and him had gone out together after the snowball. The air still cold and filled with snow, but hints of spring were laced within it. He had told her after coming back from a meeting with Dr. Owens that she would be able to start going out of the cabin, the first had been the dance and now this.

It would be slow of course, going here and there every now and then and it would be a year or so before she got to go to a real school. After all people would have questions, but she had a cover story.

Hopper had told her to tell anyone who asked that he had taken her in after his sister died, leaving her no one in the world but him in the way of family. She was just happy to be going out and seeing the town, be able to see Mike and the others.

"We just need to get some groceries, but if you see anything you want just ask," Hopper said grabbing a cart and started down one of the aisles with canned goods.

El followed after him, her hands in the pockets of Mike's red hoodie he had given her a few days ago when they had been walking home and she hadn't given it back since it still smelled like him, his clean clothing smell that always made her smile.

Hopper stopped and threw a few cans of vegetables into the basket before moving on to grab his favorite chips and salsa.

El looked at the shelves reading the labels as they turned into another aisle but stopped as whispering found her ears.

She turned around and found an older woman shooting her a look but she wasn't talking, just looking at her like she was from the moon.

El would get used to that in the coming months, but for now, she wasn't a fan.

She focused on the rack of postcards the woman was standing next to and a second later it started to spin. Slowly at first and then faster and faster until the woman looked away from her and let out a little cry of surprise as a card hit her in the face.

El turned away, wiping at her nose, a dot of red coming away and found Hopper grabbing a box of something called capri sun and put it in the cart.

"Why do people stare?" El asked as they stopped at the freezer and Hopper started filling the basket with the tv dinners they always had.

"Who was staring?" Hopper asked looking back at her, worry in his eyes now.

"A woman," she answered not sure why he was so concerned, it would take her a long time to understand that he was scared that Dr. Owens would want her back, take her from him.

"Stay here," he said and started towards the checkout where Mrs. Byers stood helping a line of people.

She did as she was told, but only for a moment, then she heard it again. That whisper. She turned towards where it sounded like it was coming from and started for it. The aisle was in the very back of the store, the light from the windows didn't reach making it dimmer than the rest of the store, the air colder.

The sound got clearer as she reached the back and found an aisle filled with electronics.

Tv's, games, walkie-talkies, phones with curled cords in all colors and radios. El walked down the aisle, the sound of people in the distance now as she ran her fingers down the cold shelf until she found what was making the whispering.

El stopped and looked at the peach-colored radio, it was new and clean, fresh out of the box. She pressed a button marked "open" and the window like thing in the front popped out making her take a step back in surprise.

She pushed it back in carefully and it closed with a snap. Later on, Mike would tell her it was for cassette tapes. Something used for recording songs from the radio and you could play it back over and over again. He would even make her one with his favorite songs on it.

She played with the dial a moment until it landed on Shot Through The Heart by someone named Bon Jovi.

"Didn't somebody somewhere say

You're gonna take a fall?

I gave you everything.

Now here's the curtain call And I'm shot through the heart

As I lay there alone

In the dark."

A smile crossed her lips as she kept going but it fell seconds later as she heard footsteps.

She turned just in time to find Hopper turning the corner in a jog, looking angry. But also a little pale, almost like he was scared. "There you are," he said taking her by the shoulders, "Why didn't you stay where I told you too!"

El felt shock go through her at his hard words and grip, she hadn't thought she was doing anything wrong but he clearly did. "I-I I'm sorry," she said, surprise in her voice and it must have been clear on her face as well.

He shook his head and rubbed at his face. "Don't be sorry, just...just please don't leave without me knowing next time okay?"

She nodded quickly and he let out a breath.

"What did you come over here for anyway?"

"I heard a sound and found the radio on," El answered pointing to where it still played

. "Standing there, just a live wire

With nowhere left to turn.

You were gonna set the world on fire,

But you'll never learn"

He went over to it and pressed a few buttons like she had seeming just as interested.

"Can I have?" El asked quietly, looking up at him.

He looked down at her and chewed on his lip a moment before he spoke. "Do you promise not to do that again, scare me like that?"

She nodded, smiling like crazy.

"Alright then." He said grabbing her peach radio and put it in the cart.

~

July 11, 1985

El put her peach radio on a table next to the white lamp. She reached over to turn it on but stopped. For some reason she couldn't bring herself to listen to it today, it felt… not right in away.

"Hey, El do you need any more help?" Mike asked. She turned and looked around her new "Room." Since the Byers house was already so small, the rooms already in use she would be sleeping on the couch, their living room her new bedroom. Jonathan had offered her his room and she knew that Will and Mrs. Byers would do the same but she had refused. Because in honesty she didn't care where she slept anymore, didn't care if she had a door or even a bed. She hadn't been sleeping well anyway for the last few days as she unpacked her things.

"El?" Mike said again and she looked over at him.

"No I think It's done," she answered and stepped back joining him to look at their handy work. A small part of the living room had been cleared up for her where she had put her boxes of clothes and books along with her rolled-up posters. The pillow and blanket she would be using to sleep with were folded up by the couch…..and that was it. That small corner held the life she had made in that cabin with Hopper.

"You okay?" Mike whispered into her ear as she rested her head on his shoulder. She nodded not wanting to voice the words because they might have to be true then.

"Hey you know I'm having a big movie night tomorrow right? My mom got all kinds of movies on VHS. The Terminator, Poltergeist, The Goonies. Nancy got one called sixteen candles which sounds girly but you'll probably like it."

"Because I'm a girl?" El asked looking up at him.

"No, I mean yes, b-but.. Like you would probably like the….." he trailed off and she shook her head in wonder at how he talked himself into a maze.

She turned so she faced him now and looked up to see his cheeks a little pink. "I'm not sure I'll go," she said finally.

"But everyone is going, Max, Dustin, Lucas, Will. I think Nancy and Jonathan will be there as well, but they will probably be upstairs making out. Hell Dustin will probably invite Steve over since he doesn't have a job anymore."

El bit her lip, she didn't know why but for some reason it felt off. She knew that things had to go back to normal but going to watch movies and eat sugary foods... it felt like it was happening too fast.

"Come on it will take your mind off of things, there will be popcorn, candy, soda. I'll even make you eggos."

She couldn't help but smile at that, somehow he always knew how to make her feel better, even if it was for a moment. "Fine, I'll go but you better have those eggos ready."

"Of course I will, I'll even get my mom to buy some whipped cream," Mike said smiling.

"Wow romantic," someone said from behind them.

Both she and Mike turned to see Max, Dustin and Lucas standing there ready to go.

"Better than having to sing to one another," Lucas said sarcastically looking at Dustin.

"Hey that was for Suzie and only for Suzie," Dustin shot back, "You weren't supposed to hear it."

"Well, we did," Max said, "How did it go again?"

"Don't," Dustin said.

"I think it was something like…." Lucas said looking at Dustin with a wicked smile.

"Please don't," Dustin asked.

"Turn around. Look at what you see.

In her face. The mirror of your dreams."

"Noooo," Dustin said and turned for the door.

"Make believe I'm everywhere. Given in the light," Max joined in and followed after Dustin into the night.

"Written on the pages Is the answer to a never-ending story. Ahhhhh." Lucas and Max sang as they disappeared through the door, closing it after themselves.

"Dustin is never going to live that down," Mike said shaking his head before he looked back down at her. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek before pulling away and followed their friends.

El stood there a moment looking after them as they got on their bikes and rode away as the sun started to drop below the trees, the small smile still on her lips before it was gone again.

"Hey, you ready for dinner?" Mrs. Byers asked coming into the living room then.

El looked away from the window and turned towards her. "I was actually going to have a shower if that's alright," she asked.

Mrs. Byers walked over to her and gently placed a comforting hand on her back as she spoke. "El this is your home now, you don't have to ask for anything."

El nodded looking away from Mrs. Byers kind eyes. "Thank you. I'll be fast and join you all for dinner in a minute."

"Take your time," Mrs. Byers said softly as she started for the kitchen.

El walked through the hall and went into the bathroom, closing the door and turned on the light before going over to the tub and turned the cold and hot water on. The sound of the water running from the showerhead filled the room as she undressed quickly, the steam making the world look misty as she undid her bandage and saw that it looked to be doing better, it barely even hurt now when she walked.

She got in and tipped her head back letting the smell of the hospital wash away in the warmth of the water and shampoo. Her world went quiet as the water covered her ears and she closed her eyes taking a deep breath and rubbed at her face. In the dark of her own mind, she let herself slip into it, the mindlessness of simply breathing in and out, thinking of nothing at all. But too soon she had to come back to reality. She opened her eyes blinking the water away and covered her mouth to keep her scream in.

The water that had just been clear with only bubbles from the shampoo moments ago was now black as the sky on a moonless night and as thick as tar.

El hit the back wall, her hand still covering her mouth as her breathing hitched. The water had raised to cover her feet to the point she could barely move them with how sticky it was. Suddenly a bubble appeared on the top of the black and popped sending whatever it was in the tub covering the walls and shower curtain.

El finally let out a cry of fear as more and more black bubbles started forming and popped covering her and the wall, Heather's voice rang out around her as they popped. "I died because of you! I died because of you! I died because of you! I died because of you!"

El grabbed at the shower curtain and threw it open, pulling her feet free she fell onto the tiled floor with a hard thump.

For a moment she laid on the cold tile, her breath heavy as scared tears fell from her eyes, the voice dying away.

A knock came from the door than making her look up, her eyes wide. "El mom said dinner is almost ready," she heard Will say.

"I-I'll be right there," she said breathlessly looking back at the shower to see that it was normal again. The water was still running clean as ever. The walls and curtain were white with not even a smudge of black.

"Are you alright?" Will asked sounding concerned.

"F-fine," El said, slowly standing up using the sink and grabbed a towel wrapping it around herself.

"Okay," Will said and she heard his footsteps fade away.

El went over and turned off the water carefully, not taking her eyes away from the drain the whole time scared that another voice would start again. She rewrapped her leg as fast as she could before getting dressed in a loose t-shirt and sweatpants, her hands shaking as she grabbed onto the sink to keep herself upright.

With one last look at the tub, still normal as ever, El opened the door. She found the others already sitting down at their dinner table talking to each other as they ate lasagna, the tv on in the living room, the news talking about the mayor and how he was trying to cover up something. She joined them and looked down at her plate, she didn't really have an appetite but she picked up her fork all the same not wanting to hurt Mrs. Byers feelings.

"You alright El?" Jonathan asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

She looked up and found all of looking of them at her. Could she tell them what she was seeing? Unlike the things the Mind Flayer had done the things she was seeing didn't leave anything behind, Billy was dead, the bathroom wasn't covered in black stuff, she was the only one to hear those voices. Would they believe her?

"I'm fine," she answered softly as she took a bite of her food, not really tasting it.

The room was quiet for only a moment more before they went back to talking and her mind went to wondering. She would talk to Mike about all of this tomorrow. He would believe her even if he didn't see the things she did, he would help her...he always did.

~

AN/

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry if anyone was actually waiting on an update (who am I kidding no one is reading this) I will be back to updating every two/three days now. Anyway thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps.


	5. They're here chapter 5

They're here

~

December 26, 1984

~

"Are you sure?" El asked biting her lip worriedly as she looked up at Mike's house, the colorful Christmas lights catching in the gray sunlight.

"It's going to be fine," Mike said his breath fogging up in the air like her own, "It's not the first time you've been to my house after all."

"But it's the first time I'm meeting your parents."

"So?" Mike asked, not understanding why she was so nervous.

"What if they think I'm weird?" El asked.

Mike made a face, "They already think I'm weird so you'll be normal compared to me," Mike said and saw the little smile playing on her lips at his words. "Plus, even if they do it just means your cooler than everyone else," he said and opened the door pulling her into the warmth of his house.

"Mom I have someone for you to meet," Mike called out taking off his jacket and hung it up with the others on the rack before he helped El with her's.

"I'm in the kitchen," they heard her call out.

El followed after Mike as they stepped into the clean kitchen.

"Mike what were you shouting abou-" his mom started as she turned away from the stove but cut herself off when she saw El.

"Oh hello," she said, surprise in her voice as she looked down and Mike realized he was still holding her hand.

He quickly pulled away his hand, his cheeks burning, "Mom this is El. She just moved here to live with Hopper."

"Well, it's nice to meet you El. I hadn't heard of anyone moving in, " his mom said, confused but still put a smile on all the same.

"I'm his niece," El said and quickly told her cover story and Mike's mom's eyes softened.

"I'm sorry to hear about your mother, I'll have to bring a casserole over but I'm happy to hear that you'll be taken care of. Hopper is a good man."

El nodded, a shy smile on her pale face.

"Hey Mike, Dustin is looking for you," Nancy said coming into the kitchen but stopped when she saw El, a little surprised.

"Nancy this is Mike's…Friend?" his mom said unsure.

"It's nice to meet you El," Nancy said hiding her smile as she shook her hand.

"Will you be staying for dinner?" Mike's mom asked.

"No, my curfew is at six," El answered, "Hopper will be picking me up."

"Mike!" Dustin called from downstairs.

"Gotta go," Mike said and without thinking grabbed El's hand and pulled her down the basement stairs.

Mike's mom looked after them a moment with a raised eyebrow.

"Was that a girl?"

Mrs. Wheeler turned to find her husband drinking a cup of coffee looking after his son.

"I'm going to take a bath," she said tiredly rolling her eyes at her husband's bluntness.

"There you are," Dustin said.

"Took you long enough," Max said from where she was sitting next to Will and Lucas.

"Hey it's not my fault my mom talks a lot," Mike said leading El over to a chair and she saw that wrapped gifts sat next to it.

"Sit down," Mike said taking a spot next to the others.

El did as she was told and sat, finding everyone looking at her. "What's going on?" she asked slowly, looking at them.

"What do you mean?" Max asked, "It's Christmas!"

"You do know what Christmas is right?" Lucas asked.

"I know," El said, "It's a day where people give each other gifts and eat too much."

"Well, you're missing some info there but close enough," Dustin said as he got up and grabbed some boxes and handed them to her.

She looked down at them then back at her friends, "I didn't get you guys anything."

"Don't worry about that," Mike said, "It's your first Christmas with us after all."

"Yeah and you can just make up for it next year," Lucas said.

"LUCAS!" Max said and hit him in the arm, giving him a look of death before she shook her head and looked at El, "Here open mine first."

Max reached out and handed her a box wrapped in green.

El unwrapped it and found a small box of something called nail polish.

"What is it?" El asked looking up at her.

"You use it to paint your nails," Max said, "I'll show you later."

"Thanks," El said a little confused as to why someone would want to put paint on their nails, but it was nice all the same.

She opened one gift after another. Dustin gave her a few books that he himself enjoyed. Will gave her art supplies and Lucas gave her some comics about people called the X-Men.

"Thank you all so much," El said.

"Now it's just Mike left," Max said looking at him.

"Don't you guys want to start setting up D&D or something," Mike said and El saw that his cheeks had turned pink.

"We're not missing this for anything," Lucas said.

Mike rolled his eyes but handed her a small box.

She unwrapped it to find a cassette tape marked with "El's mixtape."

"What's a mixtape?" El asked.

"It's a tape with songs I thought you would like," Mike answered.

"What kind of songs?" El asked.

"You'll just have to listen and see," Mike said.

El smiled down at the little tape excited to see what was waiting on it.

"Can we play D&D now? Will asked.

"Yeah," Mike said and got up going over to the table that held they're bored.

"Want me to paint your nails," Max asked.

El nodded still holding on to the tape.

~

Mike

~

July 12, 1985

~

"Michael, you better get up or you'll miss breakfast," Mike heard his mother call from downstairs. Mike rolled his eyes from where he stood by his dresser. Already having gotten dressed in his normal jeans and a yellow t-shirt.

"Michael!" He heard his mother call once more.

"I'm coming!" Mike called back as he opened his door and started downstairs. He went into the kitchen to find his mother putting a plate of pancakes down in front of Holly. Nancy and His dad were already eating.

His dad was reading the newspaper, and Mike couldn't help but notice the front page showed a photo of Hopper, the words "HERO" over it.

"Mike sit down and eat your breakfast before it gets cold," his mom said sitting down next to Holly taking the syrup from her before she could pour the whole thing on her food.

Mike did as he was told and sat down but he didn't take his eyes away from the photo.

"Did you hear the first funeral is being held today?" Ted said flipping to the next page.

Mrs. Wheeler shook her head, "I still can't believe it. I mean I've never heard of a fire starting in a movie theater like that."

Mike shot Nancy a look, they both knew the cover story by heart. They had to tell it over so many times now.

They had all decided to go to see the last showing of Back to the future before going to the fair that night. The movie was just about to end when a fire started somewhere in the film room, but by the time anyone knew it, it was too late. He, Nancy and the others had been the first one to get out with cuts and bruises from the panic and Mike would let his mom believe that was how El got hurt later that night at the hospital. He would tell them that Hopper had been the first to get to the scene and go in trying to save the others who hadn't made it out yet, but the fire had spread faster then anyone could have guessed.

"I'm just happy you all made it out," his mom said taking a long drink from her coffee. "How is El by the way?"

"She's doing okay. She's coming tonight to watch movies with everyone," Mike answered, "Which reminds me can you get a few things from the store?"

"Of course," his mom said pulling the cup of coffee Holly was trying to get away from her.

"Great, "Mike said and pulled a small list from his back pocket and handed it to her.

She took it with a raised eyebrow and read it for a moment.

"Why do you need two boxes of eggos and three cans of whipped cream?" she asked.

"It's for El," Mike said, "I think it will make her feel better."

His mother let out a sigh but a small smile crossed her lips. "Fine if it's for El," his mom said, "I can't imagine what she's going through right now."

Mike looked down, she didn't even know the half of it.

"Do you know when they will hold Hoppers' funeral?" she asked.

"It's going to be the last one held," Nancy answered, "I read it was at the end of the month."

His mother nodded, "I wonder when they're holding Billy's."

Mike made a face at that but didn't say anything.

He finished his food as fast as he could before he headed for the basement. He went over to a box and took out an empty cassette tape and took it over to his radio. He popped the tape in as he turned on the switch.

The sound of Take On Me by A-ha rang around the room.

"We're talking away

I don't know what

I'm to say I'll say it anyway

Today's another day to find you

Shying away

I'll be coming for your love, okay?"

Mike quickly hit record thinking El would like it. For the past few days, he had been spending hours and hours down here listening to the radio and recording songs that he believed El would enjoy, would smile at.

He knew that El was going through a hard time with Hopper's death, moving, and hoped that even if it was for a moment she could forget about it when she listened to it.

He spent the next few hours sitting by the radio hitting record on Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, Crazy for You by Madonna and lastly The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News.

"It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes.

But it might just save your life

That's the power of love

That's the power of love"

"Mike I'm back from the store," Mike heard his mom call from upstairs, "Can you come and help me put this stuff up."

"Coming," Mike shouted back and hit the stop button and took out the tape and wrote the new songs on the back. He now had eleven songs. He looked at it a moment more before he put it in his pocket as he ran back upstairs.

"Did you get everything I asked for?" Mike asked looking into the brown paper bags pulling out the boring things like shampoo and bread and put them to the side.

"I have it here," his mom said with a sigh, "Melvald's General was crazy busy today after the mall fire it looks like the other stores will be reopening again soon."

"That's great," Mike said taking the bag from his mom and looked to see boxes of all kinds of candy, bags of popcorn, and most importantly eggos and whipped cream.

"Joyce was busy which I'm sure she's happy about," his mom said and picked up Holly and placed her down on the counter handing her a small cookie, probably because she had been good at the store. "I was scared she was thinking of moving."

Mike stopped dead at her words almost dropping the box of eggos.

"What do you mean moving?" Mike asked, "They would never move away."

His mom gave him a soft look, the look that said he was nothing but a child so he wouldn't understand as she just shook her head and opened the cabinet putting up a box of cereal.

Mike shook his head back at her turned back, how could she say something so crazy. The Byers couldn't, wouldn't move away from Hawkins.

Mike spent the rest of the afternoon getting everything ready for the movie night placing the bowl of snacks out along with coke.

Next, he went over and looked at the movies his mom had rented. The Terminator seemed like a good one to start the night out with. The Poltergeist could be second then The goonies and Nancy could watch her sixteen candles last.

Mike popped The Terminator into the VCR just as the doorbell sounded from upstairs. Mike looked up and heard his mom open the door, then a second later Max, Lucas, Dustin Steve, and that girl... Robin was her name came downstairs.

"Hey," Dustin said going over to where Mike stood and picked up one of the VHS cases and looked at it, "Which one are we watching first?"

"The Terminator," Mike said taking the case, "Why is she here?"

"You mean Robin?" Dustin asked grabbing the Poltergeist case and started to read it.

"Yeah, why did you bring her?"

"Well, when I invited Steve he asked if he could bring her with since she didn't have anything to do," Dustin answered.

"Is she with Steve?" Mike asked looking over to see Steve laughing at something she said.

Dustin looked over as well and narrowed his eyes a moment, "I have no idea actually."

"She knows about El right? That she can't talk about it with anyone else," Make asked, knowing that more people who knew about El meant more danger it put her in.

"Of course she does," Dustin said looking back to the pile of VHS's, "You know if we want to see if Steve and Robin are together we should watch this first," Dustin said holding up Poltergeist.

"Why?" Mike asked making a face in confusion.

"The hideaway," Dustin answered.

"The what? Mike asked.

"You know," Dustin said.

"No, I don't."

"Lucas came here," Dustin called, making him turn away from where he was talking to Max and joined them.

"What is it?" He asked.

"You know what The hideaway is right?"

"Of course, who doesn't," Lucas answered easily.

"What are you talking about!" Mike said getting frustrated now.

"You really need to read more," Dustin said.

"Just explain," Mike said.

"It's when a girl gets scared by a movie and hides her face in their boyfriend's arm or shoulder," Lucas said finally.

"Suzie did it to me when we were watching gremlins at camp, it was when I knew we were together. "

"Max has only ever done it to me once, it was the best feeling in the world."

"Haven't you and El ever watched a horror movie?" Dustin asked.

"Her life has kinda been a horror movie so no," Mike said and both Dustin and Lucas looked down at that.

"Well let's just see if Robin does it," Dustin said.

"When are the others going to be here anyway?" Lucas asked.

Mike looked up at the clock and saw it was four pm, "They should be here anyt-" his words were cut off as the doorbell upstairs rang.

Mike made a break for the stairs and made it to the living room just in time to find his mom opening the door for El, Will and Jonathan.

El walked over to him and he was happy to see she wasn't limping as much anymore.

"Hey," El said in her soft voice.

"Hey," Mike said just as softly, "Ready to watch some movies?"

"Yeah," El said with the little smile that always made his heartbeat that little bit faster.

"Jonathan let's go upstairs," Nancy said grabbing his hand.

"We're not going to watch the movies?" he asked.

Nancy rolled her eyes as a smile played at her lips as she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Mike watched his cheeks go pink as Nancy grabbed his hand and pulled him upstairs.

"What are we watching?" Will asked joining them as they started downstairs.

"Were watching Poltergeist first," Mike said wrapping an arm around El's waist to make sure she didn't fall and he wasn't going to lie it felt amazing to have his arm around her. After July 4th it been terrifying to almost lose her to that monster, but they were here together now and nothing could change that.

He let go of her then as they stepped off the last step and she went over to the chair as he went and popped in the Poltergeist wondering if El would do that "hideaway" thing or if the life she'd lived so far would make it seem like childs play.

Grabbing the remote he sat down next to El as everyone found their spots and got comfortable.

Mike hit play and grabbed a bowl of popcorn.

"They're here."

The girl that looked weirdly similar to Holly said. Mike ate a piece of popcorn and looked over to where Robin and Steve sat and saw Steve whispering something to her and she whispered something back.

Mike looked over at Dustin and raised an eyebrow in question. Dustin raised one back in answer, they had been friends long enough to understand just a look.

Mike: What do you think? Are they together?

Dustin: I don't know yet, we need to keep watching.

Mike nodded and kept watching the movie.

"Oh gross," Steve said as a skeleton popped out of the water in the muddy pool and the woman screamed as she tried to getaway.

"You think that's gross?" Robin said, "After what we've seen in real life?"

"For all we know it could be a real skeleton!" Steve said and Robin let out a laugh.

Mike looked over at Lucas and Max then and couldn't help a smile when he saw Lucas was hiding his face in Max's arm. He would have a fun time reminding him of that later.

The movie went on until it was the final battle against the Poltergeist. Mike had looked to see Robin and Steve still watching but nothing more, maybe they really were just friends.

"Mike."

Mike turned and looked down at El to see she had gone pale.

"What's wrong?" Mike asked softly. Was this movie too much for her?

"Could that really happen?"

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"The Poltergeist. Could it really happen? Can things come back and haunt you?"

Mike felt concerned go through him at her words. At the fear in her eyes. "No. No this is just a movie, things like this can't really happen."

"What-what if they do?"

"Then you're crazy," Lucas said.

"Crazy?" El asked, watching as the family drove away as fast as they could from the exploding house.

The credits rolled then and Mike got up. "Ready for some eggos before the next movie?"

El nodded the word crazy going around and around in her head as they headed upstairs.

Mike went over to the fridge and took out a box of eggos and whipped cream.

El watched as he popped a few waffles in the toaster. "Mike what does crazy mean?"

Mike turned to her, "Crazy?"

She nodded.

"It means someone is mentally deranged like Dr. Banner."

"You mean Papa?" El asked.

"Yeah, that guy was nuts for what he did to you."

"What happens when you're crazy?" El asked.

"Some people get better and some people just get crazier," Mike said as the toaster popped and he grabbed the waffles putting them on the plate before topping them with almost the whole can of whipped cream.

El bit her lip wondering if she was the kind that got better or the kind that got worse. She let out a breath and looked up to tell Mike what she had been seeing but stopped her eyes going wide. Billy stood next to Mike a wicked smile cross his lips. "Go ahead and tell him, ruin this day for them. They'll just think your crazy anyway they can't see a thing."

El watched as Billy stood in front of Mike, watched as he reached out a hand, watched it go through him like nothing. "Nothing, they see nothing, they feel nothing. It's only you who have to see us, after all it's your fault. "

"El you okay?"

She looked up at Mike and put on a smile. "Yeah I'm a little tired is all."

"Well you won't have to worry about that soon, this has enough sugar to wake you up," Mike said.

El looked down at the whipped cream covered waffles, bits of candy all over it.

"It looks amazing," El said.

"Ready to go watch another movie?" Mike asked.

She nodded as he picked up the plate and they turned away from the wicked face of Billy who still watched her. She couldn't tell them, after all what could they do about something that wasn't really there?

~

AN/

Alright, hope you guys liked this chapter it was a fun one to write with the song and movie references much like stranger things does in real life. (foreshadowing is soo fun ;D ) But the next chapter will be a bit darker as we really get going. As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better or just that you liked it please feel free, it always helps.


	6. Chapter 6

Castle Byers

~

July 22, 1985

Mrs. Byers jogged out of her room throwing on her Melvald's General coat as she turned into the kitchen and found Will and Jonathan already sitting at the table eating bowls of cereal. Joyce went over to the kitchen cabinets and opening one she grabbed a granola bar and quickly unwrapped it. She didn't have a lot of time since Melvald's General had become the main place to buy groceries and everyday stuff since the mall went up in flames.

"Where's El?" Mrs. Byers asked seeing that the living room was empty and the bathroom door was open.

"Where is she always," Will said looking out the window.

Joyce followed his gaze and saw deep in the trees a flash of color that she realized was El.

Joyce let out a breath the mom in her wanting nothing more than to run out and comfort the girl, but she knew that El needed the space. Needed the time away from them to deal with the hurt she was going through like she herself needed after Bob.

"Do you know how long she's been awake for?" Joyce asked pouring coffee into her to-go cup.

"She's been out there since I got up at six," Jonathan said sounding almost as concerned as she was.

Joyce shook her head and headed for the back door.

El took another deep breath as she stared at the empty coke can she had set up on a tree stump a few feet away just as the sun started to peek over the trees, the sky a pale yellow. She focused on the can again. Focused on crushing it like she had all those years ago in that cold lab.

But just like every other time she had tried for the last week nothing happened. El let out a frustrated breath and kicked a pile of dead leaves angry at herself. It had been almost four weeks and her powers were still not back.

"What am I doing wrong!" El hissed under her breath kicking again at the ground.

"El."

Looking up she saw Mrs. Byers walking towards her.

"You need to come have breakfast, honey."

Breakfast was the last thing El wanted right now but nodded all the same and met the older woman halfway.

Mrs. Byers looked at her a moment and El knew she saw the dark circles under her brown eyes, her messy hair and too loose clothing that had fit perfectly fine beforehand.

Mrs. Byers let out a breath and put a comforting arm around her shoulder guiding her towards the house.

El sat down next to Will and looked down at the bowl of cereal in front of her. The fruit loops floating there soggy looking just as miserable as she felt but she picked up the spoon and took a few bites wanting to make them all happy. She knew they were worried about her, but she couldn't stop. Couldn't stop moving, couldn't stop trying to use her powers. Because if she did she would think of that hole in her heart left by Hopper or even worse the... others would start to talk to her.

"Alright, I'm going to work now. What are you guys planning on doing today?" Mrs. Byers asked grabbing her keys and purse.

"We're going to clean up castle Byers," Will answered.

Mrs. Byers nodded and was just about to leave when the phone started to ring.

Jonathan got up to answer it, but Joyce basically threw herself at it as she grabbed the receiver.

Jonathan stepped back a bit of surprise on his face matching El's and Will's own.

Joyce mouthed a sorry before she answered the person on the other end of the phone.

"Hello...Yes, this is Joyce Byers….Yes, I'm still interested….Yes, the one in Iowa…..I'll be there."

El shot the others a look thinking they would know what was going on but they looked just as confused as she was.

After a few more short words Mrs. Byers hung up the phone and bit her lip before she turned to them.

"What was that about?" Jonathan asked, " You said something about Iowa?"

"It was nothing," Mrs. Byers said and tried to hurry out the door but Jonathan caught at her hand, stopping her.

"That wasn't nothing mom, what's going on?"

Mrs. Byers closed her eyes a moment before she shook her head and put on a smile, though El saw it didn't reach her eyes.

"I'll tell you later tonight."

Jonathan gave her a worried look but nodded.

Joyce opened the door and smiled at them, "Have a good day, I'll see you all for dinner tonight, okay?"

"Bye mom," Will said as the door closed leaving them to themselves, the only sound the radio playing in the background.

"Well that was weird," Jonathan said looking after his mom. "I haven't seen her act like that since dad moved out."

El swallowed, a bad feeling coming over her but it disappeared a moment later as Will got up.

"Ready to go and clean up Castle Byers?" Will asked, and El heard the sadness in his words as they all got up and headed for the door.

They walked through the drying leaves from last autumn and green grass, the sound of crunching mixing with the morning bird song as the sun peeked through the leaves. She looked up at the trees trying to see what kind of birds they were, remembering those lonely days at Hopper's cabin. A memory of another time she had walked through trees coming back to her.

~

February 14, 1984.

~

El sucked in a deep breath as she walked through the darkness, following after the voice she so wished to hear in real life. His soft words ringing out around her in echoes.

"Hey El, it's day 94. Valentine's day...I don't know if you know what that is but it's a stupid holiday where people give each other candy and cards and sweet shit like that. I got a lot of them, even one from that girl Jennifer Hayes, she was at Will's funeral I guess she's moved on to me now that he's alive and everything."

El smiled as she walked through the cold water until she stopped and knelt in front of the fort where he sat. The same one he had made all those days ago for her.

"But you know… it's weird, most Valentine days are super fun, we get candy and cards... but I didn't have a lot of fun this time...it just didn't feel right. Dustin said it's because I've been moody since you disappeared and maybe he's right…. "

El felt her heart fall with sadness as his eyes filled with something she couldn't place as he looked down. She followed his gaze and saw a red folded piece of paper in his hand.

He turned it over and she saw the front was of a colorful bear with a rainbow on its tummy. Above it read "Friends like you…."

El wondered what it said in the inside and as if he could read her mind he opened it.

To El.

Friends like you make my heart happy.

From Mike.

Under that she saw that he had written something else.

"I miss you El, I miss you every day and I don't know what to do about it."

El reached out to touch the card but as always her hand only slipped through it and a second later he was gone in a blink of an eye, turning to smoke leaving her alone in that cold dark world.

El took off the blindfold and threw it across her room, wiping at her nose.

She got up and went into the living room, the cabin quiet since Hopper was still out at work. She let out a sound of frustration. She wanted so badly to go to Mike and see him, tell him she was fine and hear the relief in his voice.

She started for the front door and with a simple flick of her head the locks were undone and she was outside trying to think of the way to Mike's house.

With her breathing fogging up around her she had decided to just walk until she found it even if she had to wonder around in the dark all night.

But a sound stopped her. El looked around herself trying to place it and her eyes stopped on a tree, the small sound coming from the roots. She walked over to it slowly the ground still wet from the newly melted snow.

She looked around for only a moment then found where the noise was coming from.

A small baby bird lay on the ground. El went to her knees and reached out to touch it but stopped herself. She didn't want to hurt it, it seemed so small with its fluffy little feathers and too small body.

She looked up at the trees just now getting new green leaves as spring was just around the corner. And there, in one of the taller trees was a nest, it's siblings singing.

El bit her lip, thinking of how to help it get back up to it's family. Sure she could use her powers but she had never used her powers on something so fragile. She remembered when Papa had asked her to kill that white cat and she couldn't do it even when she had killed those bad men without a second thought.

But she didn't want to hurt it, she just wanted to put it back… No, she couldn't risk it. She still didn't have the best grip on just how strong her powers could be.

"Just wait here," El told it and ran back inside. She ran to her room and found what she was looking for.

She came back out a moment later a brown bag in hand that she would later take with her when she went to find Mama.

As carefully as she could she wrapped the little bird in a thin scarf and placed it in the bag. It gave only a quiet chirp as she closed the top so it wouldn't fall out.

She looked up at the tall tree. She had never climbed a tree…. hell she had never really seen a tree until last year but she could figure it out, kids did it all the time.

It would take her a few tries to find her footing but after she made it to the first few branches she was set.

She grabbed branch after branch until she reached the nest.

El braced herself against the tree so she was able to pick the baby bird up as gently as she could and placed it back with its siblings.

El smiled at them as they chirped happily. Finally, she looked up and saw just how far up she really was. She could see the top of the cabin from up here. even the tops of the houses so far from where she was...Mike was in one of those houses so was Will and Lucas and Dustin... Suddenly she flinched as birds flue passed her and she almost fell, her foot slipping and she started to tip backwards.

But she caught herself on the branch and watched after them. They landed on another tree not too far from her and she watched as three red and black ones seemingly talked to a little yellow one that sat next to them.

El had no idea that birds could be so colorful, so...pretty.

She had stood in that tree for hours watching them fly through the trees, free to do as they pleased so unlike herself at that time. Finally the sun started to set and she knew Hopper would be home soon.

She had climbed down and heated the TV dinners she and Hopper always had. She watched the clock until it read five, one five and she heard him pull up outside.

She had asked him that night for a book.

"Really and what kind of book would that be?" Hopper asked.

"One about birds," El said.

Hopper gave her a confused look but nodded all the same, "Sure kid, whatever you want."

The next day he had come back from the library with a bag full of books. For the next week she had been distracted on watching and learning what kind of birds lived in that tree-lined world with her. It would turn out that bird she had helped was a crossbill. She would watch from their back porch as the red-tailed hawks and kestrels flue around freer then herself, able to see the world when all she could do was look from afar in her head.

~

El came back to reality then as they came to a stop in front of what once had been Castle Byers.

Jonathan let out a deep sigh and in that breath she heard the hurt in it.

She had never really been in the small fort except for that time when she had found Will in the upside-down but she knew that it was something special to the both of them that she would never understand.

Jonathan started to pick up pieces of wood that had once made up the fort and so did Will.

El started to help them clean up, picking up the bed-sheet that had once covered the door and folded it, then she grabbed a piece of wood but as she went she found one with words written on it in red paint.

"Home of Will the wise."

El looked at it a moment before she moved it over to lay next to the sheet.

Then she found the one with the words in yellow

"All friends welcome." And then another bored with "Castle Byers," also in that same old yellow chipped paint.

"Where would you like me to put this?" El asked and Will looked up and saw what she was holding.

"You can put it with the rest of the wood we're getting rid of."

El was a little taken aback at his words as he turned back to cleaning up. She looked over at Jonathan and he nodded at the sheet where she had put the other one.

She put them all on the sheet and folded it up so Will wouldn't see. "How old is the fort?" El asked as she picked up a photo of Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will holding a first place ribbon for some math project.

"Four years old now," Jonathan said, "We built it the night are parents divorced so we wouldn't have to be around when that basterd left."

"What does divorced mean?" El asked picking up a few of Will's drawings.

"It's what happens when two people fall out of love with one another," Jonathan answered.

El felt confusion go through her. How did two people fall out of love? Sure she had broken up with Mike but she could never not love him and they were back to dating…..Wait was that what he had been trying to tell her that time in the grocery store?

She felt her eyes go wide then as realization hit her and the wood she had just picked up fell from her arms as she just stood there for a moment.

"You okay?" Will asked looking up at her.

El nodded and quickly picked up the wood she had dropped.

For the next few hours they cleaned up the wood, putting it in a pile to the side, before grabbing the pillows, blankets and other small toys, art and photos and started back home the sun high in the sky as the afternoon came around.

As they walked in the late summer heat El fell behind the two brothers noting that Will kept shooting looks at Jonathan as if he wanted to say something.

She slowed her paste until she was a few feet behind them and Will moved to walk side by side with his older brother.

El didn't want to hear what the two were saying but the warm breeze seemed to carry their words over to her anyway.

"I'm sorry," Will said.

"About what?" Jonathan asked looking down at him.

"We built Castle Byers together, we put those signs up that night, we both got sick afterwards from it raining and I was the one to destroy it. I'm so sorry Jonathan can you forgive me?"

For a long moment Jonathan was quite before he gave a short clean "No."

Will looked up at him with hurt eyes but a second later Jonathan let out a light laugh and shook his head.

"Of course I forgive you, Will. Honestly, I'm surprised it took you so long to take that thing down after what you when through in the upside down, it being where you spend a lot of time and all."

"You're really not mad?" Will asked, his smile back.

"Yeah, I would have helped if you asked, I'm pretty good at hitting things with a bat and all."

Will shook his head a smile lighting up his face.

Suddenly they fell back so she was walking in the middle of them. "Thanks for the help El," Jonathan said.

"No problem," El said as they walked into the clearing of the Byers house.

They all looked up then and stopped dead. Joyce's car sat in the driveway along with a black SUV that she had never seen before.

"Who's that?" El asked looking up and saw that both boys had no idea as well.

"No idea," Jonathan said as they all walked up to the front door.

El looked back at the car a bad feeling coming over her, though she couldn't say why.

Jonathan reached for the doorknob and was just about to twist it when it was opened by someone on the other side.

They all took a step back and came face to face with Dr. Owens.

El took another step back, her eyes going wide, her heart sinking as her nightmare came back to her about being back in that lab sending a wave of cold through her even in the heat.

Jonathan and Will moved to stand in front of her as Mrs. Byers stepped out beside him.

"Oh you guys are back early," she said, "You remember Dr. Owens right?"

"Yeah, why is he here though?" Will asked.

"I was just talking with your mother about a few things is all."

"And those things are?" Jonathan asked, his voice colder than it had been a minute ago.

"That's something you should probably sit down and talk to your mother about, I was actually just going so you'll be able too," Dr. Owens said giving them a smile as he walked passed them and got in his car, driving away a moment later.

All of them watched after him until he turned a corner before and they looked back to Joyce.

"What was he talking about?" El asked looking up at the older woman.

Mrs. Byers bit her lip a moment before she opened the door wider and stepped back inside.

"Let's talk."

All three of them shared a look before they followed her inside as she closed the door.

"Go ahead and sit down," Mrs. Byers said.

"That's not good," Will said under his breath as they sat down on the couch as Joyce took a spot in the green armchair facing them.

El swallowed unsure what was happening and both boys seemed the same.

"So what was that about?" Jonathan said, "Why was Dr. Owens here?"

"I needed to ask him something," Joyce said not looking them in the eye.

"What did you ask him?" Will asked.

"I needed to make sure that I could move El."

"What!" El said, panic seizing her, "Where are you moving me!"

"No, no it's not like that. I wanted to make sure we could all move and the government wouldn't want to stop us or anything."

"What do you mean move?" Will asked.

"To Iowa."

"Iowa?" El asked.

"Yes it's a-"

"Can I talk to you alone?" Jonathan asked standing up, cutting off his mom.

"Jonathan..." Joyce said her voice filled with pity.

"Please."

Mrs. Byers nodded and El watched them go into her bedroom.

El heard a soft sound beside her and when she looked at Will she saw tears in his eyes. He blinked once and then they were streaming down his cheeks. He got up a moment later and went into his own room slamming the door leaving her alone.

"Why would we need to move?" Jonathan asked, "Is it because of rent? Because I'm going to get another part-time job."

"It's not like that. This place...Hawkins...it's to filled with pain for all of us."

Jonathan shook his head his voice soft as he spoke, "Mom, is this about Hopper? Because I think this is more for you than anything."

"No, after everything that happened to Will in the last two years I think it's best to get as far away from all of it."

"What about El? She just moved in here with us, I'm not sure moving will help her right now."

"It will probably help El the most. To start a new away from all of this… this hell. All she's ever known here is pain, from that Lab in having to deal with that monster. The house I've found in Iowa has four bedrooms too so she won't have to sleep on that shitty couch."

Jonathan just shook his head again knowing she had points but so did he. He opened the door and went down the hall and stopped his heart falling to the pit of his stomach. The front door was standing wide open, the warm breeze making the curtains sway.

Jonathan went to the door looking out across the front yard to see nothing.

"Will!" He called.

"What's wrong?"

Jonathan turned to see Will standing in his bedroom doorway, his eyes red and tears still running down his face.

His mom moved to wrap her arms around him looking worriedly at the door.

"Where's El?" Jonathan asked.

"She was here a moment ago."

"Shit," Jonathan said and when outside looking around frantically, but there was nothing, El was gone.

~

An/

Alright, I hope you enjoyed a bit of a cliffhanger. I'm going to warn you now that it won't be the only one. I hope you guys don't mind seeing the flashbacks because I love writing them! I personally think it adds to the characters. I mean we have a good 353 days to make up for. (Random fact Mike began his attempts to contact Eleven via his radio on 1983 November 13 and the last time him talks to her on the radio is on October 30, 1984. So 353 days. But El returns on November 5 meaning they hadn't seen each other for 359 days) The more you know right? ;)

Also, I deiced to have them move to Iowa because it just seems to be the most likely since I think Illinois would be to close for comfort and I don't see them moving down south or to Missouri. lol, I saw someone on the ST Amino (Where I do a lot of polling for the story) say Maine (IT reference) I loved that idea but HELL TO THE NO!

(PS you can follow me on Amino (amino apps dot com p/1l3jdg ) (all one word)

Anyway, this was a longer chapter to write so I didn't get it out when I wanted which was Sunday but I'll try harder. As always thanks for reading again it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better or just that you liked it please feel free, it always helps.


	7. US Chapter 7

Us.

~

Mike

1984, September 27,

"Do you understand what you did wrong?" Mrs. Deed, their gym teacher asked.

Mike rolled his eyes, but nodded all the same.

"Your lucky Troy didn't want to call his parents because I would have to call yours and this would be the sixth time in the last four months.

Mike said nothing only looked away.

Mrs. Deed shook her head disappointed, "You know Michael your one of the best students according to Mr. Clarke. What happened to the smart boy who loved A.V. club?"

"Nothing," Mike said looking down, "Nothing happened."

"If that's what you want to believe," Mrs. Deed said, "You're free to go then."

Mike got up happily and opened the door to the hallway and started down it.

As he walked he looked up to see Troy talking to another one of his friends and Mike was happy to see his cheek from where he had slapped him across the face was still red.

Both boys looked up at him and Mike just looked back not scared of what they could do to him now, he had seen far, far worse.

After a moment they looked back down and away from him. "Mouth breather," Mike said under his breath as he walked pass them and pushed the door open and was hit with warm air laced with the beginnings of autumn.

"There you are," Dustin said and joined him along with Lucas and Will as they walked to their bikes.

"What happened?" Will asked.

"You were there, I slapped that asshole across the face," Mike answered.

"But what did he say to you?" Lucas asked.

Mike let out a breath. Today had been dodgeball day, a day they all hated since they were the fisrt to be hit and just have to sit on the sidelines watching, bored out of their minds until the bell.

Mike had ended up on the opposite team as his friends, the same one as Troy. He had been doing just fine with ignoring him but of course Troy couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"So what are you going to do now that your little freak girlfriend isn't here to protect you now?"

Mike had ignored him, but of couse he couldn't just stop.

"Whatever happened to that little freak anyway? Did she go back to the hell hole she came out of? Or did she go back to the freak show? You know because that's where frea-"

Mike had dropped the ball he had been holding and walked over to the other boy until he stood right in his face.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me," Troy said, "Your little freak-"

His words were cut off as Mike hit him across the face as hard as he could.

Troy was so surprised that he just stood there, his eyes wide.

"If you ever say anything like that about her again it will be your other arm in a cast!" Mike said, his voice low and he was happy to see the fear in his face now. It was an empty threat of course but Troy didn't know that and no one ever talked about El like that, not when she had saved hawkings from the Demogorgon. The feeling of triumph didn't last long as Mrs. Deed grabbed his arm a moment later and pulled him away.

"He really said that?" Will asked.

"He deserved it," Lucas said as they rounded the corner to where the bike rack was.

"You're not in trouble?" Dustin asked.

"Troy didn't rat me out or anything and he didn't call his parents."

"You got lucky," Will said.

"No, he got lucky," Mike said unlocking his bike and got on.

"Mike…" Dustin said.

"What?" Mike said.

"Nothing," Dustin said finally after looking at him for a long moment.

They rode in silence, Will splitting off first, then Lucas but Dustin followed after him.

Mike biked up his driveway and turned to see Dustin do the same.

"You missed your stop," Mike said getting off his bike.

"I think your missing something," Dustin said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on don't try that bullshit on me, we're all your friends and we all know that your still missing El."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Mike said opening the garage and walked his bike in.

"You know we all were her friends, we were all there when she….killed that Demogorgon. We all have to sit in that same classroom where she…" Dustin trailed off a moment before he went on, "So don't act like your the only one hurting."

Mike had frozen up at his words, "It's different," he said under his breath.

"What?" Dustin asked unable to hear him.

Mike turned back to Dustin, dropping his bike. "It's different! We… we were different than friends."

Dustin looked at him surprised.

Mike closed his eyes a moment before shaking his head, "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to snap I ...I just miss her."

" I know, " Dustin said.

Mike nodded but knew he never could, no one knows what it was like losing her right in front of his own eyes, what she meant to him even in those few days he knew her. Yes, he knew that he was torturing himself every night for the slightest chance that El could be alive, just waiting to be saved but he didn't care. To him she was like a drug that he could never get over.

"I'll see you tomorrow for D&D," Mike said.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Dustin said and got back on his bike.

Mike watched him bike away before he hit the button for the garage door and went into the house.

"How was school today?" His mom asked as Mike walked past her heading for the basement.

"Fine, PE was great," Mike replied as he opened the door and started down the stairs.

"Mike?" His mom called looking after him, but just shook her head, "Teens," she said under her breath.

Mike grabbed his walkie talkie and went over to the fort he had made for El and sat on the floor.

He let out a breath before he turned it on. Static rang out around him just like it did every day.

Mike hit the button and the static was muted for a moment.

"Hey, El.. It's day 294. Today was a harder one without you. It's funny sometimes it's just a normal day and I only think about you when I have to sit in Mr. Clarke's classroom. But other days I can't stop thinking about you…" Mike trailed off closing his eyes for a long moment, letting go of the talk button and the static once again filled the silence.

"Mike?"

Mike looked up and for a split second El stood next to the fort. But her hair was curly and she wore dark jeans and a blue t-shirt. But a breath later she was gone and he knew it couldn't really be her.

"Mike time to do your homework," he heard his mom call from upstairs.

"Coming!" Mike called back as he stood up turning off the walkie talkie and let it fall to the floor. Maybe it wasn't her, but when he did find her, it wasn't a if like with his friends because he would find her. And when he did he wouldn't let anything happen to her ever again.

~

July 22, 1985

Mike

"You really want to give all of this stuff up?" Nancy asked looking at the boxes in front of his room.

Mike looked down at them as well. When their mom had asked them to clean up their room and get rid of some stuff before school starts again he hadn't thought he would want to give up too much of his older toys and books. But when he thought of if he really needed this or that or if he had even touched it in the last six months it was surprising to find he didn't care about the boxcar children books or old stuffed animals anymore.

Of course, he had kept the things he had shown El that still sat on his dresser but otherwise he didn't feel much sadness over the loss.

"You really are getting older I guess," Nancy said, "I mean really getting rid of some of your star war things is a big step."

"Well I'm going to let Holly go through some of it," Mike said.

"Why would she want any of your old star wars toys?" Nancy said.

"Why wouldn't she? Star Wars is the best movie trilogy ever."

"She's only five and has no idea what Star Wars even is."

"Who said she can't learn?" Mike asked.

Nancy rolled her eyes and started to turn away and head back in her room but stopped as someone knocked on the front door.

Mike made a face of confusion as he looked over at Nancy, no one was supposed to be coming over today and it couldn't be their parents who were both out with Holly.

Nancy started downstairs as whoever it was started to knock harder seemingly getting impatient.

Mike followed after her just to see who it was.

Nancy went over to the door and opened it to find Jonathan standing there, his fist still raised for a knock.

Mike rolled his eyes as he turned back for the stairs, they probably wanted to have a make-out party on the couch are something like that while their parents were out.

"Jonathan, what are you doing here? I thought you and Will were doing something today?" Nancy asked as Jonathan pushed pass her too look around.

"Have you seen El? Is she here with Mike?" Jonathan asked.

Mike stopped dead, one foot halfway raised to take a step but his whole body going cold a moment as that night at the school came back to him.

Nancy gave him a confused look, "No, she's not here, why? Wasn't she with you guys this morning?"

"She was…but we got some news and she ran off and the first place I thought of was your house."

Mike turned and almost threw himself off the stairs and over to Jonathan.

"What do you mean ran off!?" Mike said.

"What news?" Nancy asked far more calmly seeing that both Mike and Jonathan were about ready to have a break down.

Jonathan ran a hand through his hair as he looked at her, and even she felt like it was something she didn't want to hear by the pained look in his eyes.

"We're moving."

For a moment the world was quite before Nancy and Mike spoke in unison, "What!"

"What do you mean moving? Where?" Nancy said.

"Why would you need to move? Mike said at the same time.

"I don't know, my mom just told us this afternoon," Jonathan said.

"Where's Will?" Mike asked.

"He's at the house with my mom, they wanted to wait and see if she just went out to clear her head and come back."

"I'll call Max, she may have gone over there," Mike said as he went into the kitchen grabbing the receiver and dialed her number.

"Where are you moving to?" Mike heard Nancy ask as the phone rang.

"Iowa," Jonathan answered.

"Jesus," Nancy said.

Mike blinked a moment, he was going to lose her...It was miles this time, but...but he was losing her again.

"Hello?"

Max's voice sounded horse and for a moment Mike thought maybe she had been crying.

"Max is El with you?"

Mike heard her clear her throat before she spoke. "No, she's not here."

"Shit," Mike hissed under his breath but Max still heard him.

"What's wrong?" Max asked her voice alert now.

"El's missing," Mike said and gave her a quick rundown on what he knew so far.

"I'll call Lucas," Max said.

"I'll call Dustin and meet you by the Library."

"Got it, see you there, "Max said and hung up.

"Where are you going?" Nancy asked as Mike started for the garage.

"We're going to meet up and start a search party, look around her favorite places," Mike said.

"We'll drive around too," Nancy said grabbing her keys from the hook, Jonathan following behind her.

Mike grabbed his bike as Nancy and Jonathan got in the car.

A moment later Mike was biking down the street his mind racing with one thought.

Where are you El?

~

El

El let out a long breath as she walked, the warm air laced with a chill now, though she couldn't tell if it was because of the sun being covered up by ever graying clouds or if it was just her.

She didn't know how long she had been walking for only that it felt better than just sitting on the couch, the word Iowa rattling around in her head. She had thought about going to Mike's or even Max's house, but for the first time she could think of she didn't want to be around the others. She just wanted to be alone…

El paused a moment, did she really want to be alone? It didn't feel like it was something she had thought of… It's like she had just got up and walked and didn't even think about it until now.

El blinked and looked around herself for what felt like the first time and found she was in the woods, trees lined her every side and she couldn't remember walking here ...or even where here was...How long had she been walking?

El started walking back the way she had come in hopes of finding where she was but a noise stopped her in her tracks.

"El… "

She turned towards where the sound had come from and felt her eyes go wide with horror.

Billy stood there with Heather...and others. Other people she had never seen before.

"Hello El," Billy said.

El closed her eyes hoping that when she opened them again they would be gone but when she did, of course, they were still there.

"You did this…." Billy said and his voice was almost calm in the quiet.

El felt her body run cold as she realized that the world had gone silent, the birds no longer singing, the breeze dead, even the sound of her own feet moving slowly back made no sound as lighting flashed somewhere in the distance.

"You did this to us," Heather said taking a step forward, "Billy wouldn't have taken me to that place of the Mind Flayer didn't want you, I would still be alive."

El kept backing away looking at each and every face that had died to make that monster for her. There were children...children younger than she had was. Older men and women who should have died peacefully in their sleep not being murdered to make something evil years from now.

El shook her head and a second later she turned away from the eyes that judged her and took off running.

She ran, ran pass trees in a blur, the branches clawing at her face and clothing leaving her with small cuts and scratches but she didn't care as she blindly ran not sure where she was going but the sound of running footsteps behind her meant she couldn't stop.

"You did this to us!" she heard someone scream.

El looked back once and her heart fell as her breath seemed to get caught in her throat as she saw them all running after her. Billy in front a smile across his lips.

She put a boost of speed, getting a few blessed feet away from them before she turned, cutting through a patch of thick trees in hopes of losing them. She felt the branches cut into her cheek, the pain making her eyes water but she didn't stop as the voices and footsteps got quieter.

El stopped suddenly as the trees thinned and she came into a clearing. She closed her eyes for a second as she tried to catch her breath, her heart beating a mile a minute as if it was going to pound out of her chest.

She looked up then opening her eyes to see Hopper's cabin. How had she managed to walk here and not even realize she had been walking home….though she guessed it wasn't actually her home anymore.

"El…"

El froze a moment, Billy's voice was close.

"Elllll come out, come out wherever you are."

For a second she didn't move to listen for footsteps but there was nothing, the only sound was her heavy breathing from running.

With a deep breath she turned and looked from behind the tree she was standing behind and saw nothing.

She had believed they were right behind her but..

"Got you!"

El let out a surprised scream as an arm lined with blackened veins grabbed at her sleeve pulling her back into the trees.

For a moment El believed this was it, she didn't know what they wanted from her but it couldn't be anything good.

Reality came back to her suddenly and pulled away from the grip as hard as she could and surprisingly the hand let go.

El took off towards the cabin then the footsteps again behind her.

She didn't dare look back this time, her only thought was the key to the front door and getting inside and away from...from whatever they were.

El took the stairs two at a time. She reached the porch in seconds and grabbed the key from where Joyce had left it in the mailbox.

"You really think you can get away from us? The people that died for you?" Billy asked as he stopped in front of the steps.

El didn't look back only shoved the key into the lock and threw the door open, before she slammed it shut behind herself.

She slid to the floor, her whole body shaking. Lightning flashed then and a heavy rain followed it a second later.

"Ellllll, you can't hide from us," Heather said sounding like she was right in front of the door now.

El was frozen in her spot on the floor, unable to move as rain started to pool on the floor from where a hole had been made from the Mind Flayer.

"Come on El open the door," Billy said, "There's no point in trying to keep us out."

El jumped, a gasp escaping her lips as someone kicked the door so hard she was sent forward.

She stood up watching the door with wide eyes as whoever it was kicked it over and over again and she heard the wooden frame cracking.

El went for the back door just as the door was kicked open so hard one of the hinges was sent flying almost hitting her.

El stepped back, closer to the back door but she couldn't look away from the group of people standing in the doorway. Billy stood in front, his eyes black to the core.

He tipped his head to the side, his face blank of any expression matching the ones behind him.

"You think you can run from us?" Billy asked, "After what happened to us?"

"Go away!" El shouted, her arms going out instinctively but of course nothing happened.

El looked at her hands a moment but Billy's laughter made her look back up.

"Don't you remember what a said before?" You can't save anyone, not yourself, not your friends, not us."

"Your friends will be among us soon enough," Heather said stepping up to stand next to Billy and for the first time El saw that it wasn't just rain pooling at their feet but black water dripping from them.

"You're not real!" El shouted back, "You're just in my head!"

"If that's what you want to believe then go right ahead," Billy said, "But it still won't save you or the ones you love."

Billy started to move forward then kicking things over as he went, books falling to the floor, games breaking open and spilling their pieces.

El turned away then, grabbing for the door handle as lights all around the cabin started to flicker but of course it was stuck. She remembered Hopper saying he needed to fix the thing but he never got the chance.

She looked back up as the lights flicked faster and faster as Billy and the others got closer, walking slowly as if she was a rabbit trapped and they were the snakes, knowing she had no way out.

Suddenly the world it's self started to flicker into a world she knew far to well. The Upside Down.

"Come on El just give up already! Your only going to end up letting your friends get hurt."

Within a blink of an eye they were in the Upside Down, the ashy snow falling around her as with the last bit of her strength she pushed at the door and it swung open.

El almost fell forward but got her feet under herself and started running, the rain soaked her instantly but she barely noticed as she jumped from the back porch and took off weaving around the blackened trees that had once been a light brown.

"You can run all you want but you have to face us sooner or later!" she heard Billy call after her.

El kept running her hair sticking to her face as she splashed through puddles, her shoes and lower half of her jeans dripping black water.

She didn't know how long she ran for, just that when she looks back no one was following after her anymore.

She slowed then as she came to the dirt road that she and Mike would walk down. She let out a breath, her blood pounding in her ears still as she looked around. It looked just like the road leading to the cabin, only everything looked dead.

El reached out a hand letting the "rain" fall into it and just like she had believed it was black. But not like the kind of water that was just muddy, but it looked like ink and had the same consistency.

"El!"

El looked up to see through the heavy rain a light in the distance getting closer and closer.

"El!"

She turned to run again but stopped herself as she recognized that voice. A voice she could never forget after listening for it for 353 days.

"Mike!" El called out trying to see through the rain.

"El thank god!" Mike said as he pulled up next to her and jumped off his bike.

"Mike?" El said her voice almost a whisper as he wrapped her in his arms.

She let her head rest against his shoulder a long moment before she looked back up and saw the others. The light she had seen was from Max's bike she saw now as she stopped next to them, Will pulled up a side Dustin and Lucas.

"What are you doing here!" she asked having to shout over the heavy rain. How had they gotten into the Upside down?

"We've been looking for you for hours," Max said.

"We almost were going to stop when it started raining," Dustin said, "But Will said we needed to check here first."

El blinked at them a moment before she noticed the world had come back, she wasn't in the upside-down anymore, when it had changed she couldn't say, the rain was too heavy to see much in.

"Come on," Mike said taking her hand and picked his bike back up, "Were going to head back to Will's house since its the closest until the rain stops."

She nodded, noting that they were all just as soaking wet as she was if not more from the downpour. She got on the back of Mike's bike wrapping her arms around his middle a second before they started down the road again.

El looked back once to see the world flicker for just a moment before it when back to normal.

She was getting crazier.

~

An/

Well again that took longer than I believe it would but I hope you all enjoyed this chapter it was fun to write. As always thanks for reading it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better or just that you liked it please feel free, it always helps.


	8. Blackened Chapter 8

An/

Okay sorry about that change at the beginning and sorry it was a long wait, it's just been f**king crazy with the storms we have had in AZ. But I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, not going to lie (because friends don't lie) but this isn't the last cliffhanger, I'll tell. 

But I do have to tell you though that it will be a long cliffhanger because for the next four weeks I'm going to be busy writing ten horror/creepy stories of my own to be posting in October for Halloween. But I'm not going to abandon this fanfic (I hate when people do that) So I'll see you all October first. As always thanks for reading it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better or just that you liked it please feel free, it always helps.

El held on tighter as Mike turned into the Wheeler's driveway, the rain still coming down in sheets making everything hard to see. They both got off, running up the rest of the way along with everyone else. Mike opened the garage door and everyone ran in, dropping there bikes finally escaping the weather.

"Nancy and Jonathan beat us back here," Mike said looking over at the cars.

"I radioed them after we found El," Will said as Mike opened the door to the kitchen.

They all piled into the warmth of the kitchen and found Mrs. Wheeler pulling out a tray of brownies.

They stopped as she looked up at them all and her eyes went wide. "What happened to you all?" she asked looking them over, water dripping on to the tiled floor.

They all shared a look wondering just how much to tell her, it had been that way for two years now. "We were just out trying to help Dustin contact his girlfriend Suzie and got caught in the storm," Mike said.

Mrs. Wheeler looked over at Dustin with surprise, "You have a girlfriend?"

"Why is everyone so surprised?" Dustin said making a face.

"No..I wasn't...I mean-" Mrs. Wheeler tried but Mike cut her off. "We're going to go change into some dry clothing now, can everyone stay over until the rain stops?"

"Of course," Mrs. Wheeler said, "I'll order some pizza and you guys can watch a movie in the basement, Nancy and Jonathan are already down there."

"Thanks," Mike called back as everyone passed her and headed upstairs.

"Dustin, Will, Lucas, you can borrow some of my clothes, El you and Max can take what you need from Nancy's room and we'll meet you downstairs."

Max nodded and grabbed her hand dragging her into Nancy's room. El looked back once to see Mike looking back at her before the door cut her view off.

Max closed the door before going over to Nancy's closet and pulled out two plain t-shirts and sweatpants. "God I'm freezing," Max said, "We never got rain like that in California."

El bit her lip hard, knowing it was her fault that they had all been out there in that storm. "I'm sorry you guys were out there looking for me."

Max looked up at her with a small smile, "El, trust me after the month you had running around the woods is pretty understandable at this point."

"Still," El said looking down.

Max shook her head and went over to her and took her hand, "El, I'm going to tell you something okay, and you have to promise not to tell anyone else got it?"

"A secret? But friends don't lie."

"Well, sometimes friends lie for other friends."

El was quiet a moment before she nodded, "Okay, I'll keep the secret."

"Okay...well the secret is that I was happy to have to go out and look for you, lately things at my house haven't been very good. My stepdad has been really quiet and everything just feels off like...like everything has been coated in gray."

El swallowed feeling her heart sink, "Do you miss him? Do you miss Billy?"

Max looked down and let out a breath, "I-I do, I mean he was an asshole a lot of my childhood and then he beat the crap out of Steve and hated Lucas for no god damn reason, but he was still my brother. He picked me up and drove me around when he didn't have too, helped me with my homework sometimes….but-but sometimes I think it could be my fault he died… "

"What do you mean?" El asked.

"For a long time I-I hated him and sometimes I wished he would just go off and die somewhere, I wished it so hard sometimes, like that night he came to find me last year...but I never wanted it to really happen. I know his dad has a temper and could be abusive, taking it out on Billy but then Billy would always take it out on others."

"Abusive?" El asked.

"It means he would...push him around, call him awful things and I think hit him sometimes but I never saw it."

El nodded remembering the man she had seen in Billy's mind, the one that called him a word she had never heard before, hit his mother, made Billy into who he was and it hit her then how much like Papa he was. Papa had never raised a hand against her but he made her do things she didn't want too and hurt people and never stopped someone from hurting her in that cold lab.

"Does he hit you?" El asked and when Max looked up she saw that El's eyes were filled with something dark.

"No, he's never done anything like that to me or my mom."

El nodded and for a moment the room was silent then El spoke, "You shouldn't blame yourself, he didn't die because of you." It was because of me, is what she thought, but didn't say out loud.

"Come on, we need to get out of these wet clothes before we get sick," Max said handing her the shirt and sweatpants.

El nodded and took them.

Lightning and thunder shook the house as she and Max started down the steps to the basement, the sound of talking reaching them.

El stepped off first and found everyone looking at her.

"Hey, " El said feeling small.

"Hey," Mike said getting up and moved over so she could sit in the large chair next to him. She let a small smile find a way to her lips as she went over to him and sat down.

Max went over to Lucas and soon the only sound was the rain over their heads and the tv, an episode of The A-Team playing all eyes still on her.

"What happened to your cheek?" Mike asked finally brushing a finger down her cheek next to the long cut she couldn't remember getting now.

She reached up as well and felt the stinging pain. "I don't know, I was running and I think a branch got me."

"Wait, what were you running from?" Lucas asked.

Billy she wanted to say, Billy and the others. But of course she couldn't because they would think she was crazy...but would they? No! No they wouldn't! They would believe her. Probably the only people who would believe her after everything they've seen-

Her thought was cut off suddenly by a voice ringing around in her head. "Shhhhhh, you don't want to do that do you? No, you wouldn't want to bother them. You wouldn't want to make them believe your crazy would you?"

"El?" Jonathan asked.

She snapped back to reality then, her eyes having to focus again.

"I was just trying to get out of the rain," she answered.

"Well that didn't really work out," Max said.

"Yeah, next time you feel like running away look at the weather report beforehand," Lucas said and El couldn't help a smile at his words.

"I can't believe we're going to be moving away," Will said and the mood in the room darken instantly.

"Your mom really wants to move to Iowa?" Max asked looking over at Jonathan.

"Yeah," he said, "I think she was thinking about it after everything that happened last year and now with what happened at the mall it just set everything it motion."

"Yeah but she's not actually going to do it right?" Mike said, "I mean school is about ready to start again, Jonathan has one more year to go and Will is going to start high school soon."

"I don't think that's going to stop her," Will said looking down.

For a moment everyone was quiet, the idea that for the first time they would be a part, not because of something supernatural, but simply because things had to change.

They were all snapped out of their thoughts by the doorbell ringing upstairs and a second later they heard Mrs. Wheeler call down to them that the pizza was there.

"Better hurry up there before dad gets to the pepperoni," Nancy said and got up, grabbing Jonathan's hand and pulled him towards the stairs. Max, Lucas and Will followed after them. Mike got up to follow as well and El joined him but stopped as a box caught her eye.

She went over to it and found a small box with cassette tapes, she reached in and took one out and saw it was already labeled with her name and was just about to flip it around to see the back when someone grabbed it from her hand.

She looked up with wide eyes to see Mike, his own eyes wide as well. "Sorry, I-I wanted to keep it a secret, I wasn't done with it just yet."

"Oh," El said, hiding a smile, Mike was always trying to do things for her.

"I'll have it done soon, then you can listen to it," Mike said putting the tape back in the box before he took her hand and they started towards the stairs. "Nancy was right, if we want any pepperoni we better hurry, my dad will literally eat the whole thing if he could, then we would be left with just cheese."

El made a face at that and heard Mike laugh at her reaction before he opened the door.

Everyone grabbed their food, Mike giving her the last piece of pepperoni before they all went back to the basement to watch the Ghostbusters, a movie that Mike and the others seemingly loved but felt a little too close to home for El.

The hours passed as they popped in two more movies, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark, the rain still didn't lighten up, lighting and thunder still ringing through the sky.

El turned and looked up then as she heard the door open and saw Mrs. Wheeler come downstairs. "Everyone's asleep?" she said raising an eyebrow.

El looked down and a soft smile crossed her lips. Mike had his head in her lap sound asleep, the others were passed out in chairs or on the floor like Nancy and Jonathan wrapped together in a blanket, Max, Lucas and Will on the couch, their heads resting on one another's shoulders. The movie had long ago ended and now the tv rang out with static, the screen showing a snowy world of black and white.

"Well, that's fine. I was actually coming down here to tell all of you that it doesn't look like the rain will be stopping anytime soon. So it's time for bed."

El nodded running a hand through Mike's hair and a second later he woke up. "Is the movie over already?" He asked, his voice laced with sleep.

"Yeah, it has for a while now, but your mom says it's time for bed."

Mike sat up and rubbed at his face, "I can just sleep down here with you."

"Yeah I don't think so, anyone who is a couple will be sleeping in different rooms," his mom said going over and woke Nancy and Jonathan up.

"Nancy, Mike to your rooms, Lucas, Will, Dustin you can share the pullout couch. Max, El are you alright sleeping down here?"

"Yeah, " Max said and El nodded in agreement.

"What about Jonathan?" Nancy asked.

"He can sleep in your room."

"What!" Mike said, "Why does he get to sleep in Nancy's room but I can't sleep down here with El?"

"Because Nancy's room is right across from ours and I know they wouldn't do anything knowing that."

Mike made a face but got up and followed the others upstairs.

El watched them a moment before she laid back down and pulled the blanket up around her shoulders and closed her eyes.

~

The darkness around her seemed to go on forever and ever. El wondered how long she had been walking for. The sound of dripping water sounded from somewhere, but with its echo, it was impossible to pinpoint it. She turned a corner then and found the same hallway she had for the last month.

Ever since that night at the hospital she had been having the same dream over and over again. Not the one with Papa and the ever-growing darkness. No something just as terrifying.

"Elllll, " a soft whisper reached her ears from all sides then. "Elllllll, come find ussssss."

She closed her eyes and covered her ears as she kept walking down the long hall that never seemed to end, but it never helped. The words still reached her.

"You need to find us. It's the only way to make us stop."

El opened her eyes back up and dropped her hands and started running down the hall as the voices started to get closer but like always they simply followed her.

The hall would keep going and going and going the voices getting louder and louder as she got closer to the end of the hall, a flickering light at the end.

"El you can't run from us, you need to save us! You need to stop this because we can't! Find us or he will find you!"

"Find us! Find us! Find us! Find us! SAVE US!"

El felt her breath catch in her lungs, making her chest hurt to the point of tears in her eyes, blurring her vision. The light started to flicker faster and faster as she reached the end of the hall.

El turned as she reached the end and just like always she found a wall blocking her way. The words, "Save us before he finds you first!" written in a deep black ink, just like the rain.

It slowly dripped down the wall and pooled on the floor, the inky liquid starting to slowly run down the hall towards her. As if it had a mind of its own. Just like always she started to back away, her breath ringing out around her in short gasps as her blood pounded in her ears.

She didn't dare take her eyes off of the blackness as it seemed to run faster towards her as she backed away. Suddenly the liquid split into five rivers, still running at her, almost like it was a hand, the fingers reaching out to grab her.

She started to back away faster and faster, her breath turning panicked. She turned to run then but she ran into something hard that send her stumbling backward.

She looked up and felt her heart sink at the man who stood in front of her.

"El?" Hopper said, surprised.

El felt her mouth open in shock, a low cry of sadness escaped her lips. Hopper didn't look like the others with their blackened eyes and black veins. His beard, once cut everyday was long and unkempt, he wasn't in the same clothes she had last seen him in but a loose gray long-sleeved shirt and pants the same color.

"H-hopper?" El said her voice shaking.

"El, is-is that really you?"

She watched him reach out a hand but right as he was about to touch her cheek he disappeared just like Mike had when she had tried to touch him.

"HOPPER!" El called out, trying to grab the smoke but it was no use.

"No!" El screamed her heartbreaking. Tears were running down her cheeks now but they weren't out of fear now.

Suddenly El let out a scream as something grabbed her ankle. She looked down and saw the black ink had wrapped around her ankle sending a cold chill down her spine. She tried pulling away but the ink was like spider webs, sticking to her skin and even as she tried to pull away it went with her.

"Get off!" El said trying to pull away, even when she knew it was no use. After all she knew what happens next.

Suddenly the thing holding on to her started to pull her back and just like always, she started to panic. The things started to pull her back towards the ever-growing pool of blackness and she reached for the thing wrapped around her leg and tried to pull it off, but it only started to stick to her fingers and hands. She slipped then and fell to the floor, the air being knocked from her lungs.

She tried to grab at anything but it was too late. She looked back and saw that the black pool had turned the wall completely black.

El felt her eyes go wide before she was pulled in.

She opened her eyes to see nothing but a world of black. She started to sink down, bubbles escaping her lips. She reached out trying to swim upwards even when she knew there was no use because there was no top, she could only go down. But she wouldn't stop fighting.

"You need to stop, your not going to win!" A deep voice shouted from somewhere in the black, "I will find you no matter what I have to do." El kept swimming trying to reach the top but finally she had to suck in a breath.

~

El shot up, her breath seemingly stuck in her throat as if she was still in that inky water, drowning. She started coughing then and covered her mouth trying to keep quiet.

She coughed for what felt like hours but could only have been minutes. Finally, the coughing died down and she was left wheezing, her hands coming away wet. In the dim light, she looked down to see them covered in the black ink as if she was still in her dream.

"El?"

She jumped than as she heard her name and looked to up see Mike. He was wrapped in a blanket, his hair a mess from sleep but she watched as his eyes went wide as he looked down at her hands.

She felt a gasp escape her lips. Could he see it?

"What is that?" Mike asked looking up at her, meeting her eyes with his own worried ones.

"I-I don't know."

~

An/

Okay sorry about that change at the beginning and sorry it was a long wait, it's just been f**king crazy with the storms we have had in AZ. But I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, not going to lie (because friends don't lie) but this isn't the last cliffhanger, I'll tell. 

But I do have to tell you though that it will be a long cliffhanger because for the next four weeks I'm going to be busy writing ten horror/creepy stories of my own to be posting in October for Halloween. But I'm not going to abandon this fanfic (I hate when people do that) So I'll see you all October first. As always thanks for reading it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better or just that you liked it please feel free, it always helps.


	9. Chapter 9 Black seas

AN  
Hey look at that I'm not dead, cool. Sorry about not updating for 3 months but I'll let you read the story now, more about a crazy life at the end ;) 

July 23, 1985 

Mike 

Mike awoke to the sound of whispering, he opened his eyes and seeing pass the dim morning light coming through the small window saw Dustin and Lucas standing over them, smiling at them. Mike jumped up remembering where he was and what it may look like to other people but in his sleepy not very awake mind he had forgotten how small the loveseat really was. The next thing he knew he and El were on the floor. 

El let out a sound of surprise and pain as she sat up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes just having woken up on the floor.

"Why the hell are you two watching as sleep!" Mike shouted as he stood up before helping El off the floor. 

"Well we woke up and saw that you were gone then found the two of you….sleeping," Lucas said wiggling his eyebrows at him.

Mike rolled his eyes at them, "We were just sleeping, that's all." 

"Whatever you say," Lucas said. 

"What do you think we were doing?" El asked confused.

"Nothing," Mike said at the same time Dustin commented "Messing around." 

El looked at them looking tired, "Messing around?"

"They're just crazy," Mike said shaking his head looking at them annoyed.

"Yeah sure we're the crazy ones," Lucas said. 

"Oh shit what time is it!"

They all looked over to see Max sitting up, her eyes wide with panic. 

Lucas looked down at his watch before he spoke, "7:48."

"Your joking right!" Max said jumping up from her spot in the armchair and started for the staircase in a run. 

"Um yeah because that's the sense of humor I have," Lucas said giving her a weird look. 

"I'm late!" Max shouted back to them as she took the stairs two at a time.

"Late for what?" Dustin called up to her as she threw open the door.

"Billy's funeral."

Mike felt his mouth open in shock and looked over at the others to see the same. Without saying a word they all turned and followed after her, running up the stairs sounding like a stampede. They turned into the kitchen and found Mike's mom making breakfast. 

"There you are all, I'm making-" she was cut off as they ran past her. She watched after them in surprise. "Well okay then." 

They reached Max just in time to find her opening the door and took a step out into the morning light. 

"Max wait," Lucas said grabbing for her hand and turned her to face them and when he did they saw she had tears in her eyes. 

"I need to go, my mom and stepdad will be wondering where I am," she said, but she didn't turn back to the door. 

"Why didn't you tell us today was his funeral?" El asked. 

Max stood there a moment and looked away from them before she spoke, "I didn't know if I wanted you there...I don't know what my family is going to be like today….my stepdad isn't the best person to be around on a normal day, let alone a day like this."

"That doesn't matter," Lucas said, "But we're your friend's, we're here for you no matter what happens. We're here for the better or worse, I think July 4th proved that."

"Yeah," Mike agreed as Will nodded along. 

"I can't ask you guys to do that," Max said.

"You don't have to ask," El said.

Max swallowed and nodded. "Okay."

"We'll go with you," Lucas said.

Max nodded and looked at them one at a time, thanks in her green eyes.

"I'll get my mom to drive you home, then we'll meet you there," Mike said.

He leads them back to the kitchen where his mom was making fried eggs as his dad sat at the table, flipping through the pages of the paper. Holly and Nancy listening to the news playing on the tv.

His mom looked at all of them with a warm smile, "There you all are, I just finished folding your clothes and I'm making breakfast now so if-" 

"Mom can you drive max home?"

"Right now?" His mom asked not looking up from what she was doing.

"Yes," he said.

Mike's mom looked up at them, surprised. "Well can I at least have the reason then," she said. 

"I have to go to a funeral, Billy's funeral," Max said not meeting her eyes.

"Oh," was all Mike's mom said as she gave Max a pitying look. "Of course honey, I'll drive you home, I'll go get ready now." 

She wiped her hands off and started for the staircase. 

Max turned back to them, "I need to get ready I'll…..I'll see you all later."

  
Lucus nodded and stepped back letting her go back down to the basement to dress.

"What should we do now?" Dustin said looking after her.

"I don't know," Lucus said watching after her as the basement door closed.

"Mike?" 

Mike turned around to find El looking up at him. "What do you wear to a funeral?"

He let out a breath unsure how to answer the question. His face must have shown it because Nancy stood up.

"I'll help you El. Follow me, let's head up to my room." 

El followed after her, leaving the rest of them standing there, still not sure what to do with themselves. 

"You have anything black to wear?" Dustin asked.

Mike let out a breath as he watched El disappear as she turned the corner on the second floor. 

"Yeah," was all Mike said as he started for the stairs wondering what else this day could bring. 

El 

"Have you ever gone to a funeral?" Nancy asked as she went through her closet as El sat on her bed. 

"No," El answered watching her pull out a long dark black dress before she threw it back into the closet before she went back to looking. The room was quiet a moment before she spoke again. "Why do people wear black to funerals?"

Nancy paused a second before she slowly pulled a black short dress out and looked over at her. "That's a good question," Nancy said and joined her on the bed, "I don't know when it first started but black is the color for mourning, wearing black shows that you're mourning the loss of someone that matters," Nancy said and handed her the dress.

El took it and held it for a moment before she looked up at the other girl. "Can I wear this to Hopper's funeral?"

"Of course," Nancy answered, her eyes soft.

El swallowed, a burning feeling behind her eyes. "Am...am I a bad person for not wanting to go to funerals...not even Hoppers funeral?" Finally, she had said it out loud, it had been haunting her for so long now, the feeling of dread at the idea of saying goodbye forever.

"No! No you're not." Nancy took her hand, "El you've seen and been through so much pain in your life. No one would blame you for not wanting to go through more of it. But this is the last goodbye to the people we knew that we have in a way, but it's your choice and no matter which one you make everyone will understand."

El nodded before she stood and held the dress out in front of her. It would be the perfect fit. She was just short enough that it would reach just past her knees. 

"Go try it on," Nancy said.

El went out into the hall and closed the door to the bathroom. She looked down at the dress before looking at herself in the mirror. The girl from the beginning of the summer was gone. As August rolled in she was no longer the girl who had nothing more than to do than worry about when she could see Mike, what she would do on the warm days besides watch tv before coming home to have dinner with Hopper. Now she didn't know what to do with herself. Every day seemed to go on and on until finally the sunset and she could close her eyes. But not even the arms of unconsciousness could save her from the pain that was just being awake sometimes with the nightmares that found her in the darkness.

With a deep breath, she slipped out of her clothing before she stepped into the dress. Pulling it up she found that it fit well. The skirt hit just past her knees, the sleeves hit just above her elbows. She reached back and zipped the zipper up. It was a perfect fit.

She looked back at the mirror and felt her heart drop to the bottom of her stomach. Her nose was bleeding. But this time it wasn't blood, it was black ink. 

"No….." El breathed wiping at it. She looked at it a moment before quickly turning the water on and let it run down the drain. 

She let out a shaking breath, the words that had been circling around her head for the past month she finally spoke out loud for the first time to herself. 

"Why?"

Why was this happening to her! Why did everything bad have to happen to her! God the very moment she was born the world seemed to have only wanted her to hurt. From being in that lab for 11 years, to finding Mike and then for her safely being taken from him and only having Hopper and now even he was gone. And now whatever was happening was just something else to add to the list……

"Maybe the world is trying to tell you something." 

El didn't even jump at the sound of Billy's voice now, the sound of it almost comforting, though she couldn't say why.

"Go away," El said, but her voice was small even in the little bathroom. 

"You're not looking so well there El," Billy said from where he leaned against the door blocking her only way out.

"What do you want now Billy?" El whispered as she closed her eyes. 

"You know what I want El," he said, and she noted his voice sounded softer then it had ever been before. 

She bit her shaking lip and opened her mouth to speak scared of the words she was thinking but a knock stopped her. 

"El you okay?" She heard Nancy call standing outside the door. 

"Yes," she answered opening her eyes once again and turned to find no one in the doorway before she opened it to find Nancy there, waiting in her own black outfit.

Nancy looked her over with pitying eyes that El decided to ignore, tired of always seeing them when people looked at her now.

"You look nice," Nancy said handing her a pair of flat black shoes. 

She took them and put them on before she looked at herself in the mirror in front of her. Somehow she looked like someone else. Not the girl she knew but someone who has seen too much of the pain the world tried to hide. 

"You ready?" Nancy asked. 

El nodded and they both walked down the steps to be met with everyone else, even Mrs. Wheeler was dressed up.

They opened the door and headed out to the car. El watched everyone get in, not sure where to go. Finally, she felt someone take her hand, she knew who it was the second they touched her, the smell of his clean clothes, his hand warming hers, the beat of his pulse steadying her own. 

"We can sit in the back together," Mike said and she nodded in agreement.

He opened the back and they got in, she sat on one side and him on the other. They looked out the window, not saying anything. The quiet seemed to be filled with the things they wanted to say but couldn't. Then I don't want to leave you's. Then I can't lose you again. Then why did this have to happen to us.

Mike took her hand and she looked over to find him looking at her, but unlike everyone else, he looked at her not with pity but knowing. Knowing what she was feeling right now. 

"It's going to be okay, we'll get through this then we can talk about this morning," Mike whispered to her. 

She nodded but didn't reply, she wanted to tell him everything, needed too. But for some reason, she couldn't make herself. It was as if it was a waking dream that kept slipping away from her everytime she reached out to it. 

The car turned into the cemetery and suddenly the feeling in the air when heavy, like a stone dropped into the water it hit them all in a wave. 

They parked at the end of the line of cars that sat in front of the gates. 

El looked at Mike one last time before they all got out. She watched as people walked by in blacks and dim gray's. They joined them, walking in a line towards a tent and white fold-out chairs, a hole in the ground. 

El felt her heart pounding in her ears, the feeling of guilt hit her head on then, making her choke on it. They stopped in the back of the crowd, a sea of darkness in what would be a normally beautiful day. 

"What a day to be thrown in the ground, doesn't seem right does it?" Billy said.

El looked over and saw him standing next to a tall tree, a pool of black under him, soaking into the green grass, turning it yellow from the roots.

She turned back to see Max standing in a black dress looking uncomfortable in it, a tall man and woman with red hair stood next to her, the man with his hand on her shoulder, seeming to hold her in place. Max looked up than from where she had been staring at the ground and found them, El watched as she seemed to relax as she looked at each of them in turn. 

El tried to give her a reassuring smile but it didn't feel like it helped.

"Not going to lie I'm surprised you and your little friends decided to come, after all your the reason I'm and so many others are in the ground in the first place." 

El stayed quiet watching as they started to lower a long box into the ground, she had no idea what it was called but she knew it was empty. After all his body was burned to ash that warm 4th of July night. 

"You really have nothing to say to me?" Billy said, sounding closer.

"We all will bow our heads in a moment of silence in remembrance of this lost soul," a guy with a large black book said. 

She watched as everyone looked down and followed suit a second later. "Don't you think you should be the one in that hole El, why are you the one who gets to stand on the grass and I'm six feet under it?"

She looked up as everyone else did, they watched the Hargrove's stepped forward as dirt started to fill the hole. 

She didn't know how long it took for it to be covered completely, didn't know how long she stood there or when Mike slid his hand into her's again. But finally, it was done and people seemed to break away from the lines they were in and started to mill around. Mrs. Wheeler headed over to Max's mother and father to talk in whispers.

Lucas went over to where Max stood a few feet away from her parents, kicking at the grass with her red sneakers. the others followed him a moment later and started to talk in low whispers much like the adults around them. 

El stepped forward to join them but a voice. Not Billy's, but someone else's. She turned towards it and noted that it was the same direction as the Byers house. Without thinking about it she took a step away from everyone, then another. The world seemed to fall away from her as she quickly walked towards the voice...no it was voiced, more than one mixed to make a noise that sounded like her name.

"El…..Eleven…..Jane….."

She moved faster and faster now through the graveyard, stepping over old graves and plates that read the names of the long-dead as it repeated over and over again. She reached the back of the graveyard and stopped in front of the tall gate. She reached out to open one of the latches, her mind telling her to stop, but that thought seemed far away now.

The gate opened and she took a step, her eyes focusing on a dirt road that would take her to where she needed to go. Suddenly a hand grabbed at her arm pulling her back. Back into the graveyard and back into reality. She heard herself gasp and looked up to find Mike.

"El….where were you going?" He asked, looking at her then the gate before he grabbed the latch and locked it again. 

"I.. I don't know," she answered, looking around to see she was a good ways away from everyone, how Mike had seen her from so far away she didn't know.

"El….your nose," Mike said nodding at her face. She reached up and felt something wet, she pulled her fingers away and found the black ink again. She quickly wiped the rest away on her sleeve, before she looked back up at him.

"We need to tell the others," Mike said, his eyes filled with worry for her. 

"No!" El shouted suddenly, she covered her mouth in surprise, her eyes going wide. 

Mike looked more confused now, as he spoke, "Why, it's not like they won't believe it's happening." 

"Mike...I haven't told-" El started but was cut off by the sound of footsteps. 

They turned and found Dustin behind them. "What are you guys doing over here?" 

"El's been-" Mike started but she cut him off.

"We were just talking about….periods." 

"What!" Mike said, his jaw dropping.

"Oh…" was all Dustin said with raised eyebrows, "Well I was coming over here to tell you we're leaving in a minute." 

"Thanks," El said as he turned back and walked away from them. Once he was out of earshot Mike turned on her.

"Periods? Why periods," Mike asked.

She shrugged, "Max said boys don't like talking about them and it's a good way to make them stop talking and leave." 

Mike rolled his eyes, "She really doesn't think very highly of us does she, we're not that easy to get rid of."

El couldn't help but look towards Dustin then back at Mike with a knowing look.

"He doesn't count," Mike said quickly.

She let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh at his words.

"Lets go," Mike said, "But we still need to talk to the other's about what's happening."

El said nothing as they walked back to meet with everyone. Mrs. Wheeler still talking to the Hargrove's. Max was talking with Lucas and Will, looking paler then she had seen her before, almost sick looking... though could she really say anything. After all, she knew too well she looked the same.

She reached out and took Max's hand. Their eyes met and El saw that Max's eyes were ringed with red from where she had been crying. Without even thinking about it she pulled Max into her arms and hugged her for a long moment. "I'm sorry," El whispered. 

Max opened her mouth to say something but El broke away from her before she could, knowing that she would tell her it wasn't her fault, but it was, all of this was her fault.

"Ready to go?" 

They both looked up to see Mrs. Hargrove stop in front of them. 

"I guess," Max said. Mrs. Hargrove wrapped an arm around her shoulder to guide her away. El watched them for a moment before they disappeared into the sea of black as it poured out of the graveyard, like a cup of coffee tipped over to spill across the ground. 

"Come on," Mike said. He took her hand and weaved through the crowd of people before they made it back to the car where everyone was already getting back into it. Mrs. Wheeler was next to the car, but she was looking off towards the graves. 

El watched as she closed her eyes a moment and whispered something to herself what looked like a sorry before she got into the car herself.

El stood next to Mike as he opened the back door for them wondering what she had to be sorry for, but the thought was cut off a moment later as she and Mike got in and they were off once again. The funeral seemed to have got on her what felt like hours but it couldn't have been more than an hour. But her body felt heavy as if she had been there for days.

"Do you want to come back to my house after we drop the others off? " Mike offered.

She thought about it a moment before she shook her head. "No, I need to talk with Mrs. Byers."

"About what's been happening?" Mike asked in a whisper. 

"Yes," El answered.

Mike nodded. "Do you think she'll know what to do?"

"I don't know," El said as they dropped Lucas off. 

"I'm sure we'll figure it out. We always do."

El nodded but she couldn't help but think about everything they lost after they do figure things out. 

They turned into the Byers driveway. She, Will and Jonathan got out and saw that Mrs. Byers was waiting for them on the porch. El bit her lip as they walked up the short steps, El in front. She had been the one to run off yesterday, even if it wasn't in her control, she was the reason they had ended up in that storm. 

El stopped in front of Mrs. Byers expecting her to yell at her or at the very least to be mad but she didn't see what Mrs. Byers did next coming.

She hugged her. The older arms strong around her own shoulders. El stood there frozen a moment not understanding what was happening for a second before she wrapped her own arms around Mrs. Byers. 

"I'm sorry," El whispered, "I-I don't know what's happening anymore." 

Mrs. Byers shhhed her. "There's no reason to be sorry." The older woman pulled away and with an arm around her shoulders, she guided El inside. Mrs. Byers looked over at her son's and gave them a soft smile. "Come on, let's have lunch." 

They walked into the house and found lunch already on the table, PB&J sandwiches and red kool-aid. El couldn't help but smile at the food, it reminded her of what Hopper would have made if they had t.v. dinners it would be….like he was here….

They sat down at their places, no one even looked at their food or drink, simply looked at Mrs. Byers all unsure what she was going to say.

She cleared her throat and let out a long breath. "I'm sorry for springing that on you yesterday, I should have told you before now, I've been thinking about it since last October….maybe even before that after we got Will back, but after this 4th of July, I knew. I know it was time to get out of this messed up little town."

Jonathan looked confused, "How are we going to pay for that? Moving is a lot of money we don't have."

Joyce nodded, "You're right, that's why we're not the ones paying for it."

"What do you mean?" Will asked. 

"The government is."

"What! They all said in unison, shock going through the room. "Mom there not just going to give us money out of the goodness of their hearts, it's the U.S. government," Jonathan said. El nodded in agreement, she knew all too well what they could do, and giving money to them didn't seem to be high on their list.

Joyce put her hands up to calm them. "I know, but it wasn't my idea. It was Dr. Owens. After I took in El he agreed that it would be for the best to get away from all of this and said if I kept him updated on El he would make sure we didn't have to worry about money to move and some money to put into a college fund for you all."

"What do they need to know about me?" El asked.

"Just basic information. School grades, doctor records."

El nodded not really caring about that stuff, they probably had all of that already, it's not like it was hard to find. 

"We're going somewhere no one will know us?" El asked the idea felt weird and almost unreal to her. She was the weird girl that Hopper took in last winter, the girl that didn't talk to other people, the girl who didn't go to school, the girl no one here cared about outside of her family and friends. The girl who could be someone different in a new place…..maybe the ghosts that followed her here wouldn't find her there.

"Yes," Mrs. Byers said, "We can start everything new there." 

"But what if we don't want to do this?" Jonathan asked, "What about school? I still need to graduate….what about the people we have here already?" 

"I know it's going to be hard, but this is what we all need now," Mrs. Byers tried. 

"Why are you the one who decides that?!" Jonathan asked, sounding more and more upset, "What about Nancy? What about the people we leave behind here?"

Mrs. Byers let out a sad breath, as she looked at her son. El couldn't guess what the others were feeling at the moment, for her Hawkins had only been a place that had brought her pain for eleven years of her life until Mike and the others found her in the woods that rainy night, but Will and Jonathan had lived here all of their lives, they had people who had known them their whole lives, they had lived in this house for as long as they could remember probably. 

Mrs. Byers opened her mouth to respond but the sound of a ringing phone cut her off. She got up and answered it. 

She listened a moment, nodding along to the person on the other side. She bit into her lip as she shot them a look before she mouthed a "sorry" and walked into her bedroom closing the door as much as she could with the cord in the door. 

Jonathan got up and left them sitting at the table, going into his room. Will looked defeated sinking down in his chair. El looked at the table for a moment thinking, a second later she got up and went into the hall. She didn't know if this was the best time to tell Joyce about what had been happening to her but it couldn't be the worst. 

She stopped at the door and listened for a moment. 

"I know….but you see this isn't the best time…..Okay but...right….okay..thank you."

El opened the open after she hear silence for a long minute and found Mrs. Byers standing, the phone against her chest, her eyes far away somewhere she couldn't see.

"Can I ask you something?" El asked.

Mrs Byers snapped back to reality then as she looked at her with a soft smile. "Of course, but I need to tell you something first." El nodded walking further into the room. 

The older woman hesitated a moment before she spoke. "When we move I want to go back to school, but not a normal school, I want to study criminal justice. I want to be a detective."

El felt her mouth open a little in surprise but it was quickly replaced with a bright smile. "That's amazing, you're going to be a great detective."

"Thank you, but there's a problem. I've got all my papers ready and I was just going to send them in the mail, but my school just called and told me I had to have the enrollment paper's in tomorrow morning if I wanted to start this Autumn. Meaning I would need to leave tonight to hand them in so you would be left alone all day tomorrow with the boys."

She kept her smile on, her plan to tell Joyce what had been happening to her died. If she told her about it now she would want to stay and try to figure it out with her and El wouldn't let that happen, she wouldn't be the reason Mrs. Byers missed this opportunity.

"I'll be okay," El said with as much truth as she could muster.

"Are you sure?" Mrs. Byers asked, "Because you've been looking unwell and have been through so much this month and I just don't want to leave you suddenly if you need me. 

El nodded, "I'm fine, I'll be fine, you need to go, you don't need to worry about me."

"You're my daughter now I'm always going to worry about you," she said wrapping her arms around her and laid a soft motherly kiss on top of her head. El closed her eyes a moment, the feeling of being safe was so comforting she didn't want to leave it. But a second later she pulled away. "Like I said I'm okay, you need to go."  
Joyce nodded "I'm going to go tell the boys and pack."

El turned and watched Mrs. Byers leave the room leaving her standing there by herself. A light flickered above her. A sound made her turn back around and she felt something wet and cold hit her on the forehead. She stepped back surprised and saw a drop fall pass her. She reached out a hand and the next drop landed in her hand. Black ink ran down her palm and dropped off her finger to land on the white carpet spreading out like a pool, steeping into the white. In the next blink of an eye it was gone. 

AN

Well, it's been a while now, right? Sorry about that. But see!! I would never just leave something unfinished.....3 months later. There's been a lot going on in my life, the first is that I got a job. It's a retail one so with the holidays it was kinda been crazy like crazy, crazy. Second is I became a published author like a publisher published a story I wrote. That is kinda awesome!! It's Daisy Chains by Samantha Evergreen….yeah I'm an author and I'm using my pen name for fanfic too. But to be honest I've never, like really never believed I would actually be published so I never cared that it was under my pen name that I was trying to get published under, and I'm okay with it. I'm having a lot of fun writing this. I, of course, hope you enjoyed it. Something that I will be doing is working more on is quality than speed. Before I was just trying to get it out to you all as fast as I could. But rereading it I saw it needed to be a bit more detailed and the grammar, of course, needed work, I hope that's okay with everyone. (Tho it won't be another 3 months) I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, anyway thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. again this is really fun to write so the next update so be soon :D 

ps the link to my book is in my bio. (sorry about the self-promo)


	10. Sunset Chapter 10

Sunset 

El

El watched as Mrs. Byers ran around the house throwing things into a suitcase making it look like a hurricane had blown through the rooms, jeans, and t-shirts laying on the floor.

She picked them up and went over to the suitcase and put them in and took out the ten mismatched socks, the dress that looked like it hadn't been worn in years and folding them she placed them in along with somethings she knew Mrs. Byers would need. 

"There you are."

She turned and found Joyce standing in the doorway, her hair was a mess and a jacket hanging off a shoulder but she seemed happy in a way, having a energy she hadn't had in a month. 

The older woman came over and looked inside before she snapped it closed and picked up the case. "Thank you, honey, " she said, giving her a soft smile. 

"Of course," El said, her own smile on as they walked into the living room where the boys both stood. Jonathan said next to the kitchen, his arms crossed, but he didn't look mad….just hurt. Will stood next to the door, his arms folding the papers Mrs. Byers needed to enroll with. 

"So you're all sure you're going to be okay?" She asked for what felt like the 100th time in the last hour. 

"Yes," they all answered in unison.

"Okay good, dinner is in the oven it will be done in 35 minutes, make sure to use oven mitts and I left 20 dollars for pizza tomorrow night on the countertop," She said taking the papers from Will.

"Mom, we'll be okay you need to get going," Will said.

Joyce went around and hugged all of them before she opened the door and was just about ready to step out but stopped once again turning back to face them.

"And you know what to do in case of an emergency?" 

They didn't even answer her this time only giving her a dry look. 

"Nevermind," Joyce said realizing her choice of words.

"Bye mom," Jonathan said almost pushing her out the door towards the car. "Okay, okay I'm going," she said with a small smile on her lips. 

They all waved as as she got in her car and pulled away from the house slowly. She waved back at them until she was nothing but a dot in the distance. Jonathan closed the door and the house was quiet a moment before Jonathan hit the wall, the sudden sound made her and Will jump. She looked at him surprised, he was never the one to get angry. 

"You okay?" Will asked. 

Jonathan was silent a moment before he finally said, almost whispered, "No."

He turned to them and El saw the feelings in his eyes. She couldn't pinpoint just one, there seemed to be to many for one person to have. 

"No I'm not and I don't know how you're not pissed off about all of this."

"Because I want mom to be happy and maybe she's right, it's not like we've ever found happiness here that goes for more then six months," Will said.

Jonathan let out a broken laugh "You know that's something dad said before he left, he wanted us to leave for something better and when mom told him no because we were happy here he decided to go on his own."

"Were not dad and there was more there than that and you know it," Will shot back. 

"So you're both okay with leaving everything and everyone we've ever known behind?!" Jonathan asked, his voice raised now. "Nancy, Mike?"

"Of course not!" Will shouted back, "I hate leaving Mike and the others behind, their my best friends I hate that I won't get to go to high school with them. I hate I won't have summer break here or Halloween or birthdays with them but I understand why mom wants to go, this place is hell! for the past two years, it's been a nightmare!"

El stepped back watching as they fought with one another, their voices rising. She didn't like this, hated it, the screaming bringing back the image of men in lab coats yelling at her, yelling that she needed to do better or she'll be hurt again, punished again.

"And you think running away is going to make all our problems go away?! Because it's not!" Jonathan shouted, "That's not how things work!"

"I know that!" Will yelled back just as angry, just as hurt.

El backed away from them more as she covered her ears as Will when on.

"I know it's not going to fix anything, but maybe it will help to make me feel like I'm safe, like the next time I wake up in the middle of the night in the dark and for a minute think I'm in the upside down! Fear making it where I can't move for a moment! Maybe I won't be afraid of a breeze on the back of my neck!" 

Jonathan's anger seemed to die then. His expression changed into one of concern. "Will," he breathed, but Will didn't seem to hear him, his eyes swimming with unshed tears that El couldn't help but wonder how long he had been holding in.

Will moved then and hit Jonathan in the arm as he continued to shout in his face. "Maybe I won't jump every time the school bell rings suddenly or of thunderstorms!!!" 

"Stop it!" El tried to yell over them but they didn't hear her. 

Jonathan stumbled back, hitting into the side table next to the chair, more surprised than hurt by Will's hits as he kept shouting, tears falling from his cheeks now.

"Please!" El tried again, her heart pounding in her chest.

"I'm tired of hurting here! I want to be okay for once! I want to feel safe!" Will raised his fist this time. 

El closed her eyes not wanting to watch but instead of a fist meeting skin, the yellow lamp that sat on the table exploded into thousand's of pieces. Glass flue across the room, landing all over the floor. The room went dead quiet as she looked at their faces both shocked, their eyes wide as they looked at her. 

She looked down at her hands for a long moment, not believing what had just happened, were her powers back? She looked back up at them a moment before she turned and went into Mrs. Byers room slamming it shut behind herself without having to touch it. She sat down on the bed, her mind spinning with what had just happened. She looked up and focused on the clock that sat on the bedside table. She sucked in a breath and as she let it out that clock started to blink before flipping to 11:11. 

She reached out slowly to touch it, a small smile on her lips but jumped instead, her heart pounding in her chest at the sound of the phone ringing from where it still sat on the pillow of the bed next to her.

She watched it ring for a second before she picked it up slowly and held it to her ear as she answered, "Hello?" 

For a moment there was nothing but static on the other line until a deep voice rang across it. 

"Max."

El felt her blood run cold as she listened to it and heard it again, sounding like the person on the other side was underwater, their voice muted somehow. "Max…." suddenly El felt something wet running down her cheek as the phone went dead. 

She pulled it away and watched as black drops ran down her hand to the carpet from where it poured out of the phone. With a gasp she threw it to the floor and wiped at her cheek in a panic as the dial tone rang out around her. 

For a moment she stood there fear cooling her every vein, as she ran her hands through her hair as she fught the scream that was building in her lungs. She was tired. Tired of all of this. She turned away from the phone and faced the window. She didn't want to be in this room, but she didn't want to go back out to the boys. She didn't want to see their worry. 

She looked out the window and was met with the sunset. Yellow and orange mixed to make the world look like it was on fire. She let out a breath, a voice whispering to her from behind. "Go...go...go….find us…."

Without thinking about it she slid the window open and lifted herself up and out. Her shoes hit the ground and a warm breeze picked her hair up and flowed it around her face. She looked back at the window for only a second, something deep down telling her to turn back, stop this, it wasn't her idea that this wasn't going to end well. But she didn't listen, letting it fall silent as she started down the dirt path. 

She walked through the trees letting the birds song mute the rest of the world as the sun went deeper and deeper behind the tree line the memory of another sun but this time it was a sunrise that came to her then, a small smile following it.

November 4, 1984

~

El 

She was exhausted, every part of her hurt, Hoppers arm around her was the only thing keeping her upright as they rode up the elevator from where she had just closed the gate for what she believed was the last time. The only thought she could think of was that they were safe now. They were all safe.

She didn't remember much of what happened next, just that she was taken to a shower to wash away the events of the night, the blood from her nose was wiped away as the warm water fell down around her. 

After she got out she was handed some clean white clothes and it was all she could do to not pass out then and there. Finally the last thing she remembered before falling asleep was the feeling of Hopper’s hand holding her own as they drove away as she slipped into darkness, into silence.

Until she heard him.

"Are you sure she’s okay?"

Mike. Her Mike. The voice she had wanted to hear, waited to hear for over 353 days.

He was here and she knew it wasn't a dream this time because in her dreams she could see him. She wanted nothing more than to see him right now, to be able to feel him again, but she didn’t have the strength to open her eyes, couldn't even move, she must have used too much of her powers.

"She’s still sleeping, kid," she heard Hopper answer, sounding just as worried as Mike was.

“It’s been four days!” Mike hissed, "That's not normal."

"Like any of this is normal?" Hopper asked, "She’s been through a lot and it took its toll on her, she could sleep for another four, we have no real idea.”

"Can I see her?" Mike asked, his voice soft and filled with the same pain she had heard many times. Sounding just like he had all those times he radioed her over the last year. “ I just…I need to make sure she’s okay.”

"...Fine," Hopper answered finally and a moment later she heard the door open.

Mike

~

Mike couldn't help but worry, it had been four days of nothing but waiting for her to open her eyes, worried that she would wake up when he wasn’t there, but terrified that she might not wake up at all. That thought made him sick to his stomach to the point he constantly checked to make sure she was breathing sometimes.

The days at school were the hardest though. Because life had to go on, they had to go to school and act like nothing had happened. No one knew what had happened that night. They believed it was nothing more then a power outage and that Will had been out with the flu for the two days it had taken him to wake up.

Everyone was happy to see Will back to normal….well as normal as they could all be after going through everything they had seen. Normal was something none of them would ever really experience again.

That's something he had resolved himself to be okay with. Because normal….normal was boring, normal was something he was never meant for. He and his friends had never been normal in the first place. Not in the traditional sense anyway and El was definitely not normal. 

That was the part he loved the most about her.

Why wasn’t she awake yet?

He sat down next to her bed and looked down at her, she was pale but seemed to be sleeping peacefully. She was drained. He didn’t know what closing the gate must have been like, or how much it drained her to do it, but it was more power she had ever used before.

She had to be okay because he couldn’t lose her. Not again. Not when the last year nearly killed him.....And if she didn't wake up....Mike stoppedhimself from that idea and looked down at her and smiled. He hadn't seen her curls until now and ran a finger thouht them gently.

He sat there thinking... he had heard that people could hear when you talked to them when they were sleeping….maybe it would help her wake up if he spoke to her.

"I...I like your hair El, it's ...pretty. "

He waited a moment to see if that would wake her up but her eyes remained closed, her breathing slow and deep, so he went on.

"You know everyone is dying to see you, Dustin and Lucas want you to read the X-Men comics because you're basically one, but Max...that's the redhead girl….she's actually pretty cool saved Steve's ass...But I'll leave that story for later, she wants you to read DC comics….oh and I can't wait for you to meet my mom, she's going to love you….well after she actually believes I have a girlfriend who is with me of her own free will and my dad will never believe it…..That's if you want to be my girlfriend that is," He added.

He laced his fingers with her's then, he didn't care if he had to sit here all night talking to her. He would sit here until she opened her eyes.

"El….you know we made a promise, so I'm going to keep it until you keep your end right?" 

Still nothing, it would be a long night, but he didn't care, he'd wait as long as it took her to wake up. 

El 

~

It took a minute for her eyes to focus when she finally woke up. The room was unfamiliar for a moment until she realized it was the cabin, she was in her room. Her home. She felt something warm in her hand and went she looked down and found what it was she couldn't help but smile.

Mike was sleeping next to her, his hand in hers, his head resting on the bed.

She reached out even as her body ached but she wanted to make sure this was real. She ran a fingertip down his cheek before she moved them to his hair, she had wanted to feel the soft mess of curls for a long time now and now she was able to, no bad men after her, no monster's, nothing but time. 

“Eleven?” 

She looked down and saw his brown eyes filled with sleep before he seemed to wake up and realize she was really awake. When he did he sat up, wide awake now “You’re awake!”

“You’re….really…here.” She said, her voice dry, letting her hand fall to the bed as they looked at one another.

“Yeah,” Hopper’s said from where he stood in the doorway, arms crossed watching them. “The kid refused to leave you all night, it’s annoying.”

She looked over at Hopper. He had dark circles under his eyes like he hadn’t been sleeping. But then he smiled, "I'm happy you're awake, I'll go make your favorite breakfast, but don't think I haven't forgotten you ran away to Chicago, we're still going to talk about that.”

“Chicago?”

Mike’s voice pulled her attention back to him, his eyes worried once more.

“Umm…that's a long story,” she said.

"I think we have a lot of those to tell each other."

“Jesus,” Hopper muttered, “I’m gonna give you kids a minute while I make breakfast. A short minute,” he added looking at Mike with narrowed eyes, “And the door stays open got it.”

Mike nodded and waited a minute after listening to Hopper get further away before he looked back at her with a wide smile that made her heart melt. 

“Thank you for being careful,” he said finally, his words soft.

“I told you I would be.”

“You promised,” he added, the look in his eyes, it was the same look he had the night she’d come back. The first time he’d seen her in a year.

“It’s something you can’t break,” she said quickly, "You were the one who told me that."

She watched his cheeks turn pink, and she knew why, he was remembering that day.

“I was so worried about you,” he whispered after a long moment looking away from her and down at their hands, he flipped her hand over to reveal the number tattooed on her wrist then and rubbed it slowly in calming circles with his thumb and she remembered the first time he’d touched her. He scared her then. But now, now there was no fear, only comfort. "I’ve been so worried about you and not just for the last four days, every day since that night at school.”

“I know,” she said softly, “I’m…I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?” He asked, looking at her confused.

She looked at him biting at her lip, "For staying away, from you. From all of you. I didn’t want to….I just-"

“That’s not your fault,” he said cutting her off, “Hopper decided that, not you.”

“He was trying to keep me safe,” she said, “I hated it, but not all the time. I mean, I…I missed you. And I wanted to see you.” She paused, looking down at their joined hands, and then she looked back up into his eyes. “But…but now, I think I understand.”

Mike nodded because in a way he understood too, he would do anything to keep her safe. "How are you feeling?" He asked trying to change the subject.

“Fine,” she said, but he wasn’t convinced.

“Really?” he said skeptically, an eyebrow raised.

“A little tired,” she finally said.

He nodded, and she wanted to say so much more. There were a million things she wanted to say, but all she could do was sit there, looking at him, holding his hand in her own. So, so grateful that he was there next to her again.

“I heard you while I was sleeping. Your voice talking to me though I can't remember what you actually said,” El finally said, breaking the silence. 

“You did?” He asked happily.

“It made me want to wake up, you made me what to wake up so I could see you for real, not just in a dream.”

He didn’t know what made him do it, but he leaned over and kissed her forehead, his lips soft and warm on her skin.

She allowed that feeling to wash over her in warm waves, before he pulled away from her, his eyes warm. They stay there a long moment just happy to be with each other until a sunbeam crossed over them. She looked towards the window and saw the sun peeking over the tree line. The sun was rising, pink and a light yellow painted across the world. The darkness washed away.

July 23, 1985

El 

~

The smile faded as a cool breeze hit her then, the sun long gone now and the smell of rain in the air. Night bathed everything in its shadows making the world look far more sinful than in the daylight.

She sucked in a deep breath as she turned the corner and found herself in a neighborhood, one she had been in before when she had come to Max for help after Mike's phone call. Then it had been a sunny hot day, not like now, as lightning flashed in the near distance. 

Max's name had been repeating itself in her head for the last hour and half as she had walked. The voice on the other end had sounded…different somehow, It didn't help that she had a bad feeling about….something. She stopped in front of a house, the lights on. She could see a woman with red hair cooking in the kitchen but didn't see Max.

Thunder sounded as she crossed the street, looking both ways as lightning lit her way up the driveway. She let out a breath before she knocked. As she stood there the first drops of the rain started to fall, hitting the warm ground making a mist rise around the houses and road in the few minutes it took for the door to open. 

El looked up to see the same woman as before, but now seeing her up close she looked tired and worn out, Her eyes dark and bit od gray laced her hair. 

"Um can I help you?" She asked, confused.

"I'm a friend of Max I just wanted to make sure she was okay after today."

"Oh well…"

El could see her hesitate a moment before she looked up to see the weather, the rain getting heavier now. "Sure, come in."

The older woman moved to the side to let her in and closed the door behind her. El followed after her as she led her through the room until she stopped a moment before stepping into the living room. 

El looked around her and saw a man in a armchair, his eyes bloodshot, a beer in hand, a few empty cans sitting next to him on the small table. The t.v. was on but he didn't seem to be watching it, his eyes blank like he was looking at another world instead of the one he lived in now.

"Neil, one of Max's friends is here to see her." 

Neil looked over at them a moment looking as if he was trying to focus, a second later El jumped as he threw his beer can to the floor, sending drops across the floor as lightning flashed. "I'm out of beer, get me another can Susan."

"Of course honey," Susan said smiling, but her eyes said something else altogether, fear. She turned to El and whispered to her. "Go down the hall. Max is in her room." 

El nodded, not taking her eyes away from the man as she passed and went back to the kitchen. He sat there, looking like a mess but she didn't doubt he could get violent. She quickly walked past him but couldn't help looking at the t.v. and flicked her head to the side and switched the channel from a baseball game to sesame street and with a quick look she knocked the remote off the table where it fell into the shadows under the chair. 

She jogged down the hall hearing him curses loudly, a small smile on her lips. Thunder shook the house as she rounded the corner and stopped. Billy's door stood open looking just like the day she and Max had gone looking for Heather. She coundn't stop from walking into the dark room, the smell of cigarettes hitting her and she saw the bed was still a mess, but someone had picked up the old beer cans and threw away the ash tray. 

Lighting flashed then lightning the room and she saw a frame catch in the light. She walked over and picked it up slowly and she felt her blood run cold. It was a photo of Billy and his mother. He looked a little younger then the boy she had seen on the beach, a bright smile on as his mother held him in her arms at a birthday party. 

El swallowed, the feeling of heat behind her eyes as she moved to put it back but stopped when she saw an envelope, dust caked on it. 

She placed the photo down and reached into the shadows and looked at the front and saw it was addressed to Billy. The return name was ripped off but the return address was from California.

She opened the envelope and found a letter and seven-hundred dollars. Surprise went through her at the money but as she opened the letter and read it her heart fell.

Billy. My dear lovely Billy. I know it's been a long time, a very long time since we've talked, a long time since we've seen one another. You were in middle school the last time I saw you on your 12th birthday...it was a long time ago now and I'm sorry about that. There are so many things I'm sorry about, too many to write here or I'll be here for another five years but the biggest is leaving you with your father.here is a lot to say and be sorry for but I will never stop hating myself for that. I was scared, so scared. But so were you. I'm your mother Tr and I should have saved you, you should have been the one to get away not me. I know how angry your father can get and I abandoned you with him alone and I'll understand if you never want to see me again...But if you do you have a place, a home with me. I got remarried a few years ago and after I started looking for you again only to find you in Hawkins. I'm not going to beg you to forgive me because I don't deserve it, but if you find it in yourself this is my address.

Love you always-Mom.

El looked down and saw the address but the ink looked like it had gotten wet in some way...almost like teardrops. She ran a finger down the page, noticing that it had been opened and folded back up multiple times with the deep lines in the paper.

"Hello?"

El jumped , almost dropping the letter but managed to put it back before she turned to find Max's silhouette standing in the door. 

Max stepped into the room and flicked the lights on making El blink at the light, but once she could see a gasp escaped her lips. 

Max's red hair was a mess, her eyes bloodshot but unlike the man downstairs it was from tears. What made El surprised and angry, so angry was the bruise on her cheek. 

"What are you doing here?" Max asked coming further into the room, worry in her green eyes.

"I..I was worried about you," El said walking over to her concern in her words as she got a better look at the bruise. A dark mark that looked painful.

Max turned her face away from her as she spoke, "I'm fine." 

"Did he do that to your cheek?" El asked as she gently turned her face so she had to look her in the eyes. 

Max was quiet a long second before she nodded. "After everything today I...I said something I shouldn't have I guess, I don't even know what but it was...But it wasn't that bad, just a little slap," she added quickly, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than El.

"He hurt you," El said alarmed that she was trying to downplay it but in a way she understood. Papa's men liked to hurt her when she didn't do what he said, they had looked at her more like a lab rat than a kid. 

Max said nothing to her words, both knowing there was no excuse for his actions.

"Do you want-" El started.

"No!" Max said cutting her off, panic in her eyes. 

"What if he tries to hurt you again?" El asked.

Again Max said nothing because what was there to say because if it happened again she would-

"What are you doing in his room!" 

They both turned to see Mr. Hargrove in the doorway, his face red with anger or alcohol El didn't know but he was clearly out of it, his eyes unfocused and he didn't seem to be able to walk very well. But that didn't mean he wasn't dangerous because there was power not being in control.

"We were just talking," Max said stepping in front of El. 

"About what?! Billy? What kind of father am I to let him be out that night? For letting him die!"

He stepped into the room and Max took a step back but El didn't move. 

"You think I don't know what you and your mother say behind my back!" 

"We never talk about you!" Max hissed at him as thunder rocked the world outside. 

"Don't lie to me you little b-"

El stepped forward but stopped as someone from behind them grabbed his arm stopping him. Max's mother stood in the hall, anger clear on her face. "Don't you dare touch my daughter!" She growled, like a wild animal ready to attack. But the moment was short lived as he pushed her back with the arm she had grabbed sending her falling to the floor, a scream raining out around them. 

"Mom!" Max shouted running to go to her side but Mr. Hargrove grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her against the wall hard and held her there, Max swung out with her arm but he grabbed it and pinned it to the wall. "You and your stupid mother think you can push me about like I'm an idiot!? You think I don't know your dating that little n-" 

"Let her go!" 

For a moment he didn't move, surprised maybe. That, someone, had the nerve to yell at him when he was like this when he clearly believed he was the strongest person here. He looked at El then, his eyes looked like black pools of anger, and for a moment El wondered what had made him into this person that he was today, which path led him to be the man who believed beating on people was the answer to anything. Whatever it was it didn't matter now.

"Who the fuck do you think you are telling me what to do in m- 

El tipped her head to the side cutting him off as he let out a scream as his arm that had Max's wrist snapped, the sound echoing around the room a moment before he was sent flying into the dresser on the other side of the room. He crashed into it hard, the piece of furniture rocked against the wall the things atop it fell around him, the lamp shattering, the lightbulb flickering, making the room match the storm outside. 

El moved forward slowly as shrugged to get up but he was so drunk that he didn't get very far, falling back to the floor in a pile as he held his arm to his chest in clear pain.

With another flick of her head, the dresser was sent flying to the other side of the room a moment before she lifted him up and slammed him against the wall.

"What the hell are you?" he hissed through his teeth as he looked up at her from the wall.

She wiped at her nose and saw it ran black before she looked at him.

"I don't know." 

The words were true because she knew this wasn't her. In the back of her mind, she knew something was wrong, these weren't her actions but it was drowned out by something else….something more powerful than her.

"Kill him...Kill him…...bad man…..They only want to hurt…..Kill him and make sure he can't hurt your friend again...."

El covered her ears but the voice still found her with its words that cut into her like a knife.

"You're a monster. Why don't you prove it!"

"Stop it!" El shouted, closing her eyes wanting to block everything out. 

"El?" Max asked, worried.

"KILL HIM!"

"NO!"

Max moved to stand next to her but before she could the glass in the windows bused inwards and he was sent flying to the side of the room where he crashed into a bookshelf and stayed there unconscious. El fell to her knees, her body shaking and she felt the warmth of something dripping from her nose, the room going cold from the rain outside.

Through blurry eyes, she slowly turned to look at Max. Her friend slowly stood fear in her eyes as she looked at her before she went over to her mother who sat frozen, a long cut over her eye from where she had hit her head in the fall.

El stood, her head spinning though she didn't know if it was from the use of her powers or at what she had just done. 

"Mom are you okay?" Max asked, going to her knees next to her. The older woman nodded, finally looking away from El to her daughter. "I-what-who-" 

"It's okay mom, I'll tell you everything later but for right now we need to leave. Is there anywhere we can stay?" Max asked, panic clear in her voice. 

Her mother nodded slowly as she started to get up and El watched the older women ball her fists up to stop the shaking before she walked into the room. El moved out of the way and into the hallway as Max's mother came in and looked down at the man who she had once believed loved her, Max behind her. "We can stay with my co-worker Alison…. I'm sorry….About all of this….sometimes I wonder if moving here was a good idea, if any of this was a good idea. Because he sure wasn't."

Max kept her eyes on the rain falling outside the house not knowing how to answer that question. When they had first gotten here it had been a nightmare but now….now this was home. It was here her friends where, where Lucas was. Where she made a life for herself, even if it wasn't the happiest. 

Neil made a sound then and they both backed away. 

Max turned away and walked back into the hallway to find El gone. Max spun around herself but El was nowhere.

Max felt her breathing pick up and started to run downstairs. When she got to the bottom she found the door standing wide open. Lightning flashed across the sky lighting the world as she ran out to look for El but saw nothing....she was gone.

El wiped at her face trying to see through the rain pouring down but it did nothing. She was walking blindly in this storm but it was better than staying there. She didn't want to be looked at like that by her friends. with fear. She didn't know what had come over her. 

The sound of someone walking beside her suddenly made her look to the side and found Billy. He walked calmly as if they were simply taking a normal everyday walk but his eyes blacked out. "Why didn't you kill him?"

She said nothing in response and only kept walking, though she sped up a little. 

"It's not like it's hard to do, you've done it before." 

Thunder rumbled around them and El crossed her arms in a hopeless attempt to warm herself but it did nothing against the chill that had set in from being soaked to the bone.

"Is it because you can't?"

She stopped dead then and turned on him. "What do you mean!" 

"How many times do I have to say?" Billy said as he kept walking and she had to almost run to keep up with him. "That's not an answer!" El yelled after him. This time it was him who didn't respond so she decided to ask another question. 

"Why did you tell me to go and see Max tonight? It was your voice a heard on the phone before." 

He looked at her then with a confused expression and it looked like he had no idea what she was talking about and stopped suddenly. 

El stopped as well and when she looked forward again let out a surprised scream. She stepped back hurriedly as she looked down The Drop. A few rocks had come loose and disappeared into the dark waters below.

She realized then that she was standing in the same place Mike had when he had jumped off the edge to save Dustin. She had no real memory of walking here even passing the Byers house because it must have taken at least 20 minutes to get here after she left Max's house…..and she hadn't even noticed, it had only felt like five minutes.

"Why are we here?" El asked backing as a from the edge, even more, the memory of Mike jumping still in her mind. 

"Don't you know?" Billy asked not moving from his spot next to the very edge of The Drop.

"Why do you keep saying that?" El asked, "I don't know why any of this is happening."

He let out a hard laugh, "Don't you understand? You did this. You are the person who decided to come here, you are the reason for people who let this all happen."

"I didn't want this to happen," El said, shaking her head.

"You may not believe that but you are the reason none the less. The reason the Demogorgon got out that night, the reason Will was taken, the reason people had to die. Not to mention the death to those Demodog." 

"N-no," El tired but her words were cut off suddenly by a cold feeling, the temperature dropping to the point she could see her breath, mist starting to rise around them. 

"Really? How many people need to die for you to finally see we all died because of you. The mind flayer wants you and….I..-it won't stop until you're dead. It doesn't matter how far you run or how many more people get in the way. He will find you. It's just the question of how many more need to fall before you get it and you couldn't even kill a man who had hurt your friend how are you going to save them?"

"He's gone," El tried, but not even she believed it at this point. How many times had she believed it was all over only to find out it wasn't. 

"Look around you El. Tell me if this isn't enough to see what needs to happen to save your friends and family."

El let out a breath before she looked over her shoulder and felt ice form in her veins as people seemed to appear out of the mist as the rain slowed, people she hadn't known the names of until reading them in the death count of July the 4th. Kids, teens, grown up and older people of all kinds stood around her. Closing her in from all sides but she knew if she wanted to run they would let her... but she didn't want to. Those people of had been kill...murdered for her. Because that monster wanted her.

"How many more need to join us?" Billy asked, stepping back to join them. "How many until you see what the link is."

El closed her eyes for a long moment as her body began to shake because she understood what he was talking about now. This was her doing. Everything from the minute the time she had touched that Demogorgon everything and everyone who has been hurt was her fault…..And if the mind flayer goes after her somehow again…..More people she loved would be hurt, killed. She opened her eyes then and gasped.

Hopper stood in front of her his eyes blackened just like everyone else had but seeing him with them was like a punch to the gut. 

"Hopper?" El whispered and took a step forward, her heartbreaking as she reached out for him but he stepped away from her, getting in line with the others that were lost. 

Behind them she saw shadows. Shadows of people she knew. One of her friends...Will, Max, Lucas, Dustin…..Mike. Something in the back of her mind told her they were simply shadows and that was it, that it wasn't her doing. But it was once again drowned out by the one that had been growing stronger for the past month. That this was going to happen if she...if she was still around them. That's what they had been trying to tell her this whole time. 

El felt tears in her eyes as she slowly turned away from them and faced The Drop.

Her body felt heavy as she stopped at the very edge, small rocks slipped away from the side and dropped, down, down, down until they hit the water. 

A breeze hit her tear-stained cheeks then sending a chill through her and made her look up and saw then that the sun was rising. She had been out all night...all night and she hadn't even noticed and seemed like no one else had as well. But then again maybe that was a good thing.

She looked up at the sky as the sun just started to peek over the tree line before she tipped herself forwards.

An/

…..Well, that was a dramatic chapter to write but that's the best kind. Getting to beat up Billy's dad was a f*king lot of fun let me tell you. This is also one of the longest chapters to write with a word count of 7k! crazy that this story is hitting that number and it's the tenth chapter!!! I was never sure how many chapters it would be and I have a feeling it will be a few more like 4 or 5 but I'm planning to do my take on what season 4 could be if can't tell from the building blocks I've worked in. I would also like to write an off-shot to the latter from Billy's mother of the day he got it but honestly, I want to know if anyone will read it. As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. Again this is really fun to write so the next update so be sooner then later :D .........ps the link to my book like a real-life book I wrote is in my bio...that's crazy... (sorry about the self-promo)


	11. 11  Sink or Swim

11

Sink or Swim

Mike

July 23, 1985

"Mike It's your turn," Dustin said from where he sat at the table, a game of D&D set up.

"Shouldn't we wait for Will some more before we get too far in?" Mike asked, snapping himself away from his thoughts and sat down with the others from where he was standing next to the fort that still set in the corner of the room from all those years ago. An empty chair sat next to him that Will was supposed to be in, but when Mike had tried to call him, he hadn't answered it or the last ten calls that he had placed thinking that this would take their minds off of everything that was happening….and if he was being honest he wanted to talk to El, make sure she was okay and had talked with Mrs. Byers.

"The phone is out probably because of the storm, doesn't mean we can't still play a little and let the game go to waste," Lucas said handing him the dice.

Mike let out a breathtaking them, he knew that Lucas was right there was nothing wrong, it was just the storm. But he couldn't help a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, the same one from earlier today when he had seen El walking away from them at the funeral, the same one from the night before that had told him to go down and check on her. Thunder rang out from above them as he threw the dice.

He let out a sigh as it landed on four. "Shit," he said sitting back in his chair listening as Dustin read out what happened to Master Paladin Mike.

"You rolled a four meaning your attempt to hide from the shadow wuff spiders didn't work. As you tried to hide in an old cove you fell making too much noise and they quickly started to come for you. You could fight or run, what do you do?"

Mike bit his lip thinking a moment before he spoke. "Fight."

Lucas picked up the dice and handed them back once again.

This time he threw them harder but it didn't make a difference they landed on a three. "Oh come on," Mike said, throwing his hands up in defeat as Dustin read on.

"You pull out your sword of fire and swing out and hit five wuff spiders, killing them in seconds. But a sixth spider gets behind you as you slowly back away and sinks it's poisoned pincers into your leg. You could run or keep fighting. What do you do now"

"What kind of poison is it?" Mike asked, trying to think of a way out of this.

Dustin flipped through the rule book that they had since they were seven until he finally found what he was looking for. "Well, it's a kind of injury poison which will slowly drain your health as it takes over your mind and body and will remain potent until diluted by being washed off in a body of water."

"And how close is a body of water again?" Mike asked.

"Black lake is a mile away," Lucas said helpfully.

"Is there a 3rd choice?" Mike asked, half-joking.

"That's up to you," Dustin said.

Mike took up the dice, thinking a long moment about what he was about to do before throwing them for the 3rd time as he started to say his choice when the phone rang out around them.

Mike spun in his chair so fast he didn't even see that his dice landed on one.

"Finally," Mike said and got up to answer it so fast he almost knocked over the chair.

"Hello?" Mike said excitedly, hoping to hear El's voice or even Will's given he could really use some help with this D&D game but it wasn't. On the other line he heard Max, her voice laced with worry and something else but he couldn't place it at that moment.

"Is El there? I need to talk to her and make sure she's okay."

Mike felt his whole body go cold, the blood draining from his face as the words hit him like a truck.

"W-what do you mean? What happened to El?" Mike asked quickly, his heart in his throat.

Dustin and Lucas both looked over at him now. "El's not there?" Max asked, worried, getting clearer in her voice now and he was starting to understand the other slowly.

"No, she's not, I thought she was at the Byers after this morning. When did she go to your house and why do you need to make sure she's okay!?"

Dustin and Lucas both got up then and came over to the phone trying to hear what the hell was happening, leaning in a little too close for comfort but he didn't care at the moment, he needed to know what had happened to El.

"She just stopped by 20 minutes ago because she wanted to check on me after today...and kinda ended up beating the shit out of my step-dad and now I'm at my mom's friend's house until she gets a restraining order on him and gets him out of the house….and El disappeared after that."

The phone was pulled from Mike's hand at her words by Lucas.

"Are you alright? " Lucas asked.

"I'm fine, we're both fine for now," Mike heard Max say before he took the phone back.

"What did she do to your stepdad?" Mike asked not understanding what she meant, El didn't have powers she couldn't have done that much to him….unless… unless she had them back somehow… but when and why would she go to see Max and not him after the other night?

"Long story short is she has her powers back and when my step-dad tried to… when he attacked us, she broke his arm and knocked him unconscious but...but there's something wrong with her," Max said and Mike could place what was in her voice now. Fear.

"Wrong with her?" Dustin asked.

"Like she couldn't control it."

Mike swallowed, a cold feeling washing over him because she was right there was something wrong and he didn't know what it was and that scared him. It wasn't a lab full of bad guys or even a monster. This was something he hadn't seen, meaning he wasn't sure how to help.

"And you have no idea where she went? Mike asked as the sound of heavy rain came from above them.

"No she just was gone," Max said.

"Maybe she went back to Will's?" Dustin suggested.

"Yeah," Mike said, agreeing with him, but in the back of his head, he was thinking of something. Something he had been thinking of since the funeral.

"We'll go and look for her there first," Mike said.

"I'll meet you there, " Max agreed before she hung up.

Without saying a word Mike hung up and dialed Will's number again trying one last time to see if he could reach them. Like before it didn't even ring, not even a dial tone. Mike bit his lip a moment before slamming the phone back on the wall before he started for the stairs, Dustin and Lucas right behind him.

He ran up the steps and stopped in the kitchen where the car keys normally sat but they were gone. "Nancy," Mike said under his breath before he ran past the living room where his parents sat with Holly watching t.v. from where his mother shouted at him not to run in the house to which he didn't listen. They reached the top of the stairs and without knocking opened Nancy's door.

"What the hell!" Nancy shouted at them from where she lay in her bed, quickly hiding one of their mom's books with the shirtless guy on the cover.

"We need the car keys," Mike said, not having the time to jump hoops at the moment.

Nancy sat up at that, "Mike what are you talking about and not only that but you don't know how to drive. "

"Listen we need to get to the Byers as fast as possible and Max did it once and no one died, " Mike said.

"She what now?!" Nancy said, her eyes going wide with what Mike could only place as horror.

"Okay let's not focus on that right now," Lucas said quickly.

"Whatever. But I'm not letting you go out it's late, it's pouring rain and hell you should be asleep right now it's four am, not to mention I have no idea what is even happening."

Mike let out a breath, he didn't have time for this. He went over to her dresser and pulled open the top one and grabbed the keys and without another word turned around and left.

"Michael Wheeler!" Nancy hissed pushing pass Lucas and Dustin to follow after her brother.

Mike was alright down the steps and halfway into the kitchen when Nancy and his friends caught up to him.

"Mike you give me those keys right now!" Nancy said, grabbing his arm and turning him around.

He pulled away from her hand and turned to face her. Fear showing in his eyes that made her take a step back in surprise.

"We need to go please, I have a…a really bad feeling about something from earlier and it's been getting worse and if we don't leave now something bad is going to happen I can just feel it please," Mike said handing her the keys back.

She let out a breathtaking the keys before she shook her head, "Fine, I know what it's like being in love for the first time and being worried."

Mike felt his cheeks go warm but followed her out into the rain that was starting to slow down now but it didn't calm him down much.

They got into the car and pulled out of the driveway and took off down the wet road.

Mike watched out of the window as the world passed them by lightning flashed, getting farther and farther away now. But it still made him think about a time when he believed everything would be okay when he believed El and he would never be apart again and could live their lives like normal kids for once.

June 14th, 1985.

Mike

Mike tried to keep his eyes open as another episode of A-TEAM ended. Lightning flashed outside. The soft warmth of the day had been washed away by a storm that had come out of nowhere right as El had been about to go home from a day of showing her how to ride a bike. It hadn't gone well, but he was just happy to spend time with her but now they both sat in the living room, him watching tv and El reading one of his mom's cookbooks looking a little confused, both waiting for it to stop so he could walk her home.

The theme song started again and Mike couldn't take it anymore and hit the off button, the screen going black.

"What's wrong?" El asked looking up.

"I'm bored, " Mike said, letting out a long breath, letting his head fall back onto the chair, "There's nothing to do."

"Oh," was all she said for a moment before an idea hit her.

"We could make this."

Mike looked over at her and saw she was holding up a baking cookbook, the page on chocolate chip cookies, a happy smile on.

Mike felt his eyebrows lift. "Well, I've never baked before."

The smile fell as she looked down and Mike realized his mistake. "What I mean is that of course, we can make them," he said, sitting up.

"Is it really okay?" El asked.

"Yeah of course," Mike said getting up and came over to her and took her hand, pulling her off the chair and make their way into the kitchen.

Of course, Mike had no real clue how to make cookies, he had seen his mom do it a million times before but he hadn't learned himself but for El, he would try and do anything.

Mike turned on the little radio resting on the kitchen counter, the song Take On Me played, mixing with the rain.

"So what do we do first?" El asked.

"Ummm," was all Mike said as he took the cookbook and looked at it, reading the steps though not much-made sense.

3 cups all-purpose flour

tsp baking soda

tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tsp pure vanilla extract

One bag of chocolate chips.

Cook at 350 for ten minutes.

Like who knows the difference between a Tsp vs a tsp and why was brown sugar any different than white sugar? Did it really matter?

"Mike?"

"Okay got it," Mike said, closing the book and putting on a smile. "First turn the oven on 350."

El did as she was told and turned the dial as he went over and grabbed a bowl, butter, and sugar along with the eggs.

"Here," he said, handing her the butter and eggs, "mix those together in the bowl."

"Okay," she said happily and went over to the bowl and started mixing as he went over and grabbed the flour, baking soda and vanilla.

"I'm done," El said, looking up at him with a proud smile.

"Mike went over and it did look well mixed, "Great job El."

She looked up at him happy as he handed her flour. "We need three cups of this added."

She grabbed the measuring cup and opened the bag of flour and started to dump them into the bowl as he randomly picked on the measuring spoons because what real difference could it make and added the vanilla, chocolate chips and baking soda.

"Do we mix it now?" El asked.

"I guess so," Mike said and grabbed the handheld electric mixer he always saw his mom use.

He popped the beaters in it and turned it on high and put it in the bowl, not thinking much of it.

The next thing he knew was a cloud of flour flying out at them. It covered them in an instant. El let out a surprised scream as he turned it off not a second later but it was too late, all he could taste was flour and it was all he could see.

"Shit," was all Mike could think to say as he looked around them. The counter, floor, cabinets and they were coated in white. Mike stood there in silence wording just how painful his death will be when his mom saw this mess because there was no way that they could get this cleaned in ten minutes. But he was snapped out of it a moment later as one of his favorite sounds rang out around him. El started laughing. The sound sweet and light always made him smile, even if it was the worst day you could imagine and he couldn't help but join in. Both they're laughing mixed to make their own song.

He looked over at her where she was wiping at her flour-covered jeans and t-shirt. He reached out and started to run his fingers in her hair where it had aged her into an old lady, soon she was mostly back to normal besides a few white hairs.

She looked back at him still smiling, her brown eyes full of happiness...or maybe it was something more?

A moment later she stood on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek but she pulled away and made a face.

Is kissing me that bad?" Mike asked his face burning from the kiss.

"Flour tastes bad," she said running a hand across her mouth.

He kept his smile on but it fell a little as he looked at the clock. "You know I'm a dead man when my mom sees all of this right? I may be needing one last kiss before I'm ended painfully."

El rolled her eyes at him before she turned towards the mess and with a swipe of her arm the flour was wiped into the trash that sat at the end of the counter before the mess and the floor was swept into the dustpan in the corner of the room leaving it cleaner then they had found it.

Mike closed his mouth that had fallen open as he watched her. Her powers always surprising him...no it wasn't her powers it was just her.

"Do you want to start over?" El asked.

He could never say no to her.

"Of course," he said.

The rest of the day had been so many things. Warm, fun, amazing. Though it did turn out that there was a big difference in Tsp and tsp. The cookies had been horrible but that wasn't what had mattered. Just the image of her smile so happily did.

July 24, 1985.

Mike

Mike was snapped back to reality then as the car pulled into The Byers driveway. Nancy barely had time to stop before he jumped out. The rain had slowed and was almost like a mist but it still made his black hair stick to his forehead as he run-up to the door.

He heard footsteps behind him knowing the others were following him but he didn't slow down. He reached the door and banged on it.

They all stood there in the rain for a long moment before it opened slowly to reveal Will. Then it was his turn to stand there for a moment, looking confused. "What are you guys doing here this late? Did El call you? "

Mike felt everyone's eyes on him a moment before he answered. "No one picked up the phone when I called."

"El has it. Did she call you about what happened?"

"What are you talking about?" Mike asked, feeling panic rise in him.

"Will who's at the door?" Mike heard Jonathan call out and second later he stood behind the door and looked over them.

He opened his mouth probably to ask why they were there but Mike beat him to it.

"Where's El?"

"She's in her room after the lamp exploded."

"A lamp exploded!?" Nancy asked, shock in her voice.

Mike felt his heart drop to the bottom of his stomach as he pushed past them and into the house as Nancy started asking questions a mile a minute, the voices of his friends far away from him as the sound of his heartbeat muted almost everything else.

"How did a lamp explode?" Nancy asked again.

"We were fighting and she got upset and the next thing we knew the lamp broke, going everywhere."

"Are you saying El has her powers back?" Lucas asked.

Mike twisted the handle and the door opened to a dark room as Will answered.

"Yes."

Mike swallowed as he walked into the room and found it empty as he listened to Dustin fill them in about the call from Max. He stepped forward and almost fell over something, catching himself on the bed, but felt something wet stick to his fingers from something on the bed.

He went over to the light switch, a second later the lights came on showing the black stains all over the room.

The bed was a mess of it, a pool sitting there looking like black ink. He slowly looked at his hand and found the same stuff on his fingers, wet and cold.

He made a face and wiped it on his t-shirt as he looked down and found that it had been a cord that had tripped him.

He followed it with his eyes to find the phone on the floor where another smaller black pool sat. He went over to it slowly and picked it up gently. Droplets fell from it as he looked at it a moment wondering what had happened to it to have the same black ink El had coughed up. Suddenly he looked up to the window where something had caught his attention. It was open on the bottom. He went over and closed it the rest of the way, looking out to see the night, the rain gone now, a mist rising up from the ground, making the world look creepier than it should.

A feeling like icy fingers ran down his spine a moment before he turned away and found the others slowly making their way into the room as he faced the wall, and found a map of Hawkins lay on the dresser, mayor klines name on the top from when Mrs. Byers had needed it for something.

"Where did all of this black stuff come from?" Lucas asked.

"El ran away to Max's house but where did she go after?" Dustin asked looking around.

"How did you not notice she was missing?" Nancy said. "I don't know," Jonathan answered, "We were fighting and I thought she just wanted some time to herself."

Mike felt his heart rate pick up as he looked over the map, the back of the graveyard where El had been heading...The Byers' house and the way the window faced were the same.

"Letting her be alone is the worst idea right now, why didn't you talk with her?" Nancy asked.

"A lot was going on," Jonathan answered.

Mike could hear them but it was as if from underwater as he followed the path with his index finger, tracing where the roads met and where it ended together and felt his heart drop to the bottom of his stomach, his blood turning cold.

The phone fell from his hand that he had forgotten that he was even holding as he turned away and pushed past his friends in a blind panic.

"Where are you going?" He heard Dustin call after him, but he didn't stop fear in every part of his body as he shouted back, "The Drop."

He pushed through the door, it slammed against the frame as he rushed out into the night, the rain had stopped completely and a mist rose all around him looking almost like human forms as he ran.

"Mike where are you going?"

He looked to his side and saw Max running to catch up with him as he ran as fast as he could.

"The Drop, El is there and I'm scared she's not in the right headspace at the moment."

"How do you know?" She asked breathlessly finally catching up with him.

"She….I just know."

For a moment the only sound was of their running footsteps before she spoke, "I believe you, the two of you have been through a lot not to understand one another."

Mike looked at her, surprised at her words. This was the same girl who had told him that El knew her limits and to stop trying to tell her what to do, and she was right he had no right to tell her what to do with her powers. But what she hadn't known was that sometimes El was too selfless to know when she had to stop. That's why she had lost her powers in the end.

"Thanks," he said finally, then looked forward and saw the sun was rising far in the distance. He picked up his pace and as he turned the corner he was so happy he had gotten all that running in the last few years because it was the only reason he got to her so fast.

When he had turned pass the tree line he saw that El was standing in the same place as he had all those years ago, her eyes closed as she faced away from the edge. The world seemed to slow as he put on a boost of speed, the only sound was his heartbeat as he watched her tip backward.

He felt himself reach out more than thinking about it. For a heart-stopping second as she fell completely back and the idea that he was too late raced through his mind making his head go blank. But then he felt the warmth of her skin. He gripped his hand tighter around her wrist and pulled her back towards him so hard he tripped over his feet and fell back.

Pain shot through him for a moment then he heard El's small voice .through him as he hit the ground hard but he barely felt it as he wrapped his arms instinctively around her. The only sound in the world that reached him for a moment was his own breathing but then he heard El's small voice.

"No, no, no, no. Why did you save me!"

Mike froze for a moment as the sound of footsteps got closer. "What are you saying?" Mike said, almost whispering, shocked at her words.

"You're not safe with me…" she said with a dry whisper before tears started to fall down her cheeks.

Mike opened his mouth, not sure what to say when he heard footsteps running towards them.

He looked up to see Max. Her eyes were wide with shock. The other behind her.

"What happened?" Will asked.

"I-I think we need to talk inside," Mike said looking down at El who seemed to have calmed down and had stopped crying and looked up at him, her eyes red but she looked more like herself and not the person he had seen moment's before. Like she had been someone else.

"No shit," Dustin said.

July 25, 1985.

El

El stepped out of the bathroom and threw the wet clothing in the basket that she had been wearing all night long and found Mike waiting for her. They looked at one another for a long moment before she spoke. "I'm sorry….I -I-"

"Don't," he said gently, "I know you don't know what's happening but like I said before I'm...we are always here to help you. You know the saying two…. I mean six heads are better than one."

El raised then eyebrow in confusion. "Why would you want six heads?"

"It's an expression. It means more people that know about a problem means more people can help figure this out. By the way, did you tell Mrs. Byers?"

El looked down. "No. She needed to go and I know if I told her she would have stayed."

"And you have your powers back?"

She smiled a little before she looked at the wall where a photo of Will, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas sat crooked and with a quick flick of her head it was straightened.

"That's a yes then," Mike said with a smile. Suddenly he grabbed her hand and pulled her forward and placed a soft kiss against her forehead.

"Why did you say we weren't safe with you?"

El froze a moment because the words still spun around in her head because they were true. She didn't feel like herself, didn't know if she could control her power and had no real idea if she could even trust herself right now.

"Hey, can we talk now?"

El and Mike turned and saw Max standing in the living room. The others behind her.

She took a step forward but felt Mike slip his hand into hers. The warmth from it made her relax as they walked into the living room and took a seat on the couch.

"So where should I start?" El asked.

"Where any story starts. The beginning," Will answered.

She looked at him and saw everyone's eyes on her, worried, confused, but most of all caring.

She let out a breath and did as he said. She started at the beginning. From when she had woken up and seen Billy, how she had been fighting them for a month now, the recurring nightmares, the black ink that seen to follow her no matter where she went and what had happened tonight.

It was hard to say, not just because of the fear of telling people something she had been hiding but it was like that time she had told Mike some of it. Like she was forgetting something like someone was trying to stop her. But she made it to the end.

In the end, everyone seemed to have gone quiet, no one knowing what to say. That was until Dustin spoke. "Sooooo you see dead people?"

"Dustin," Mike said.

" hey I'm just saying if she starts asking to play with Danny I'm out too, " Lucas added.

El smiled knowing that's what they were after, they always tried to make a dark mood lighter.

"So it's kinda like what happened to Will last year? You keep seeing the upside down and having the same nightmare," Max said.

"But why is she seeing people that are supposed to be dead is the real question," Nancy said, "That didn't happen to Will."

"What I had was different. It was like I was possessed but…..it's more like El is haunted.

"Haunted?" Max said, "How do you get rid of ghosts?"

"What….what if it's not a ghost because ghosts can't do the things El said, it's acting like a poison almost," Dustin said.

Everyone turned to look his way wanting him to go on.

He let out a breath, "Okay so in D&D there's a kind of poison slowly drains your health as it takes over your mind and body….What if the bite El got from the mind flayer was like a slow-acting version of it?"

The room went quiet a moment before Jonathan spoke. "Okay if it's like a poison then what's the cure?"

The room once again went silent. "I've been fighting it," El tried.

"You've been doing a good job-fighting El, but you can't keep doing that. A poison will kill you if it's not treated," Nancy said.

"Well, what do you have in mind then?" Max asked.

"Maybe she can hide from them somehow? Is there anywhere they haven't followed you?"

"No," El said softly.

"The 3rd choice," Mike whispered softly, his eyes going wide. "What?" El asked, hearing him.

"We were playing D&D and my character was hurt I could have run or tried to keep fighting it but I was going to give in."

"What do you mean?" Dustin asked.

"I was going to let the poison take me over because the spider didn't mess with you when you just give up. They like messing around with their food. So it's better to wait until they leave you alone and then make a run for it even if it means hurting somewhat-what if you let them in. "

"Mike that's crazy, we can't let El do that! " Max said clearly mad.

Mike turned on her. "If we do nothing then she'll end up killing herself like she almost did!"

"I think what Mike said is right," Will said, "El you said you were having the same nightmare over and over again right?"

El nodded, "Yes."

"What if you let that black ink get you? Do you know what would happen?"

"No. I've always made myself wake up before that happens."

"This is too dangerous, and besides what if it doesn't even work?" Max asked looking around at them all but no one spoke.

"Max," El said softly, reaching over and took her hand, the bruise still bright against her cheek.

"Max I'll be okay, remember what you said? That I'm the only one who can decide how far I can go and this may be the only way for it to stop."

Max looked at her but nodded a moment later.

El looked back over at the others and let out a breath. "So I need to go to sleep."

With that everyone seemed to move at once and it seemed like seconds later that the lights were off and she was laying down. Her head on Mike's leg.

She hadn't been asleep since the night before and before she knew what was happening her eyes closed. The last thing she heard was Mike's voice. "I'll be right here when you wake up, so promise me you'll wake up soon."

She felt her lips open to say yes but wasn't sure if he heard it before she fell into the darkness.

AN/

Hey everyone, as always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I would have never believed that i would write a fanfic that was the size of a novel. I hope you're all doing well and staying safe with everything going on in the world at the moment. I know many of you have already heard this but please remember to wash your hands and try not to touch your face as much as you can. I know a lot of people like me are in quarantine at the moment which is good if your a writer and now have a lot of time to write but I know it can be very boring too, so I wanted to officer a free ebook copy of my YA mystery novel Daisy Chains to the first 11 people who DM me on here or on my twitter at SamEvergreen0 because this is the 11th chapter and of course El is the main character, I know it's not a lot but it's the only thing I can think to do. The 12th chapter will be out soon, most likely this coming Friday so look forward to that.


	12. The upside down

12

The Upside down

~

El

El opened her eyes in the same dark hallway she had found herself in every night for the past month now. The same darkness all around her going on forever as normal. She started walking, the dark water under her feet freezing as she walked towards the sound of dripping water, the echo much less than normal. Almost like it wanted her to follow it easier.

After what felt like forever she finally turned a corner and found the hallway she always found with it's dark white peeling paint and rotten wooden floors.

"Elllll," a soft whisper reached her from the darkness as normal but this time she didn't panic. She didn't close her eyes or cover her ears like she had so many times before now. But simply kept walking down the long hall that never seemed to end, but she knew better now. It always ended, It always ended in the same thing, her waking up, scared and worried. But not tonight.

"Have you come to find us?" A voice said from somewhere in the dark, normally it would make the hair on the back of her neck stand on end but this time it was almost comforting, knowing that she was going the right way. 

"Maybe," El said under her breath.

The light in the near distance started to flicker faster and faster as she reached the end of the hall, the cold hitting her full on. 

Turning the corner she found the same dirty wall blocking her way. The words, "Save us before he finds you first!" written in a deep black ink. 

She stepped forward as it slowly dripped down the wall and pooled on the floor, and started slowly making it's way down the hall towards her, and she wondered if this had always been the plan, to make her do it on her own.

She walked towards the wall slowly, edging around the pool of black carefully, never taking her eyes from it as it moved towards her, but this time she didn't give it the chance to grab her, no this time everything that was going to happen was her choice. She jumped over it and ran towards the wall full on.

She closed her eyes, the little part of her still believing she would run into a wall, but just like she had thought, she didn't.

She could never tell you how it felt to be in a room with four walls and a floor and then suddenly be in pitch black water the next. 

The weird feeling of having your feet be suddenly in the air and then not even a breath later in water when you had been running a moment before that.

She opened her eyes to see nothing but a world of black ink. She felt herself start to sink, bubbles escaping her lips. On a normal night, she would fight to swim up which never did anything to help her so now she let herself fall a moment before she turned and started swimming down.

She remembered the words of the voice that spoke to her every night "You need to stop, you're not going to win!" Well she wasn't fighting tonight and a small part of her was panicking at that fact, but she needed to do this, this was the only thing she could think to do. It was this or she would end up killing herself just like Mike had said.

"So you're giving up then?" A deep voice asked from somewhere in the blackness. El kept swimming down, her chest starting to hurt from the lack of oxygen but she didn't stop.

"You're really going to abandon your friends like that? You know I'm not done going after them? You just left them alone."

El kept swimming down, her vision going blurry at the edges, not sure what was going to happen when she had to take a breath but suddenly her hand broke through something. She didn't have time to think about what the other side held for her, she simply swam up. El sucked in a breath as she broke through the service of the water. The world around her was still dark but at least she could breathe.

She coughed up water for a good second as she floated there, but when she could finally take a full breath she blinked the water out of her eyes to see she was at the Hawkings pool. It looked exactly the same but now abandoned to the world of the upside-down.

El swam over to the edge of the pool and pulled herself up and onto the sidewalk, the air cold on her wet skin, her breath fogging up in front of her. She stood up and looked around herself, ash rained down from the dark blue sky, what she could only say were vines crisscrossed the ground, looking dead. It looked like the same dead world from all the times she had seen it but the one thing she hadn't was water.

Looking back at the pool it looked almost normal, though she couldn't say why but like everything else here it felt off in one way or another.

She started to back away from the pool, the hair standing up on her neck before she turned away and jogged the side gate and opened it to leave the pool behind. She started down the sidewalk passing houses she knew, the world she knew. But now it was colder, darker, unnerving to be in.

"Where do you think you're going?" Billy asked, walking beside her from out of nowhere. "Have you come to join us?"

"You know I haven't," El answered, "I'm here to save you all. Just like you have been asking me to this whole time." 

"I've never asked you to save me," Billy hissed from where he now stood in her face, his eyes pools of black that showed her pale face back to her.

El couldn't help the way her hands started to shake, or the nervous swallow before she spoke again. "That's because your not Bil-"

Her words were cut off suddenly as he reached out faster then her eyes could follow and wrapped around her neck. She let out a choked sound a second before she was picked up and slammed into the ground hard. She saw stars a moment before her vision cleared long enough to see Billy's face in front of her, veins of black spreading out across his face as he spoke. His words were hard and sent a chill down her spine.

"Don't act like you have any power here child, I could kill you anytime I want here! Don't act like just because you have won before that means anything because I'm simply keeping you alive to watch what you will try to do to save your life, save your friends. All simply because I'm bored."

El opened her mouth to try to speak but the only sound was more choking as she choked on her breath. 

"Go ahead," Billy hissed into her ear as he lasted his grip.

"You liar!" El hissed back at him. "You have no real power here because if you did I would be dead because that's what you have been after this whole time ever since I was that little girl in the lab and touched the Demogorgon, the monster you made this summer failed. So you sent ghosts after me but of course, you forget the most important thing about humans, because your not one." 

She watched as his eyes got angrier and angrier, "What do you mean!" 

But she didn't answer because he had loosened his grip and that's all she had needed. A second later she threw out her arm and he was sent flying backward into a fence. 

She got up and looked where the fence had been broken inward and found nothing. Billy wasn't there. El backed off slowly before she started to run away. She looked back once again but saw nothing. No one was following after her this time. It wasn't until the next street did she finally hear something. 

"Even if you think you have a chance here your friends sure don't. Or did you forget that I can still hurt the people you love?" a voice said from nowhere.

El felt her heart drop to the bottom of her stomach as she realized what he meant and where Billy had gone. "No," she breathed before another sound caught her attention.

Looking up El felt her eyes go wide with horror. A cloud of blackbirds, maybe ravens, though they looked wrong like everything else here, like they had two sets of wings not just the one normal birds did and beaks they flowered outwards with teeth. They flue above her in a large circle, blocking out the dark blue sky. She heard them cry out suddenly before they started for her. 

She backed away before she swung out an arm. Half of them were knocked to the side, black ink raining down from them, but still the others flue right for her, a mindlessness in their eyes, the only thing they were there for was her blood. 

Again she swung out. Over and over she swatted at them like flies but it didn't matter what she did because the ones that still could fly got back up and flue right for her again. She felt the warmth of blood drip down her nose as she realized that there was no way to stop them and that the only thing left to do was run.

She started to back off then and with one last burst of power to send the next wave of them flying back she started to run. Knowing she didn't have much time she ducked into an all too familiar place. Melvald's General Store.

El took a moment just to take a breath, she wiped at her nose with the back of her hand, the blood a deep red before she wiped it off on her t-shirt. She looked up and saw the store was empty of anything to use that would be helpful, but at least she had escaped for the moment.

She stepped further into the large room wondering what had happened here, it almost looked like people had gone through it before…. But that was impossible because they were the only ones to have ever been to the upside-down, sure the Russians had tried but they never made it….right?

She shook her head of the thought and focused on what she was going to do next. 

She knew where she was going but to get there now was harder with the birds but as she reached the back of the store and opened the door to the back an idea hit her. The loading door let out to a small back alley and then right into the flower shop's back alley and then that led right into the next store and so on and so on. It would take her longer to get to where she was going and it wouldn't last the whole way to where she was headed, but at least it would get her away from those birds.

She reached out for the bottom to open the door when the sound of broking glass made her turn back to the open door that led to the back room and what she saw made her heart stop. A Demogorgon stood in the doorway. This one was much bigger than the one she had seen all those years ago. A moment later the sounds of flying wings joined it.

El knew if she stayed and fought she wouldn't win, her powers already on the weak side and it didn't help that there were so many of the birds. She turned back to the door and didn't even bother with the button, simply ripped the door from its frame and jumped down into the alley and ran for the flower shop not looking back.

She ran around the back and found the door to the backroom and without even thinking she put out an arm and not even a moment later the door was blown back falling to the floor. She jumped over it and ran through the smaller building, the sounds of the Demogorgon behind her. As she ran she looked around herself for anything to use as a weapon but only saw boxes, and at this point, she would use anything.

She flicked her head to the side and the boxes fell over making what she hoped was at least a small speed bump for it.

She made it into the front room then and felt a little relief as she saw the side door behind the cash register but it only lasted a second as her foot caught on a broken flower pot. It sent her to the ground on her stomach and a moment later she heard the Demogorgon.

El turned onto her back just in time to find the monster standing right over her. It opened its mouth slowly before it let out a scream. El turned her face away from it but she wasn't the same little girl from two years ago.

As it raised it's clawed hand above her she focused on it with everything she had and watched as it slowly started to split in half. Unlike before it didn't disappear into ash, instead, it's black inky blood rained down on her legs, leaving her once blue jeans ruined as the monster fell to either side of her.

El pulled herself away from it before she stood up not wanting to slip again. She looked at the remains for only a moment before she turned away and headed for the door hearing the sounds of wings from the other room and knew it was only a matter of time before they found her.

As she kicked the door open and started to run again to the next building she hoped that Mike and the others were okay.

An

So I've decided to make the chapters shorter for now and have only one POV at a time. That way you won't have to wait for weeks on end to get a chapter but instead a shorter one every day for the next week or two. As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Wishing all the best <3


	13. Chapter 13

13~

Drive

Steve

"So tell me….Steve why would you be a perfect fit to work at Pete's pets place," Amy, the same woman who had been working there for over 30 years asked, looking up at him from where she had to look at his name for the fifth time in a row, which he was starting to take as a bad sign now.

"Well I just love animals," Steve answered, "Have my whole life it feels like. I just felt so drawn here and I think it's because of the animals. They must really need me. "

"Really? And how many animals have you had in your lifetime?"

Steve realized his mistake too late and looked over to Robin for help but she only shook her head at him slowly before she went back to petting one of the small kittens for sale. He was on his own.

"Well…. actually I've never had a pet before, but still I've always felt that I would be an amazing caretaker all the same. I mean animals just seem to love me. As well as the ladies."

The woman gave him a dry look for a long minute before she stood. "Well even without your experience it doesn't mean you can't learn and at the very least you can carry the big bags of food around. But let's test how well you actually work with animals first."

They got up and Steve followed after her to the back of the store where a wall of cages sat, cats of all colors and ages laying in them.

"If you can hold old Lolly you're hired," Amy said as she started to open the door with a key, "She is the best at letting us know if you really will work out here."

"Well this should be fun," Robin said, coming to stand behind them, crossing her arms with a smile on.

"Why do you want me to fail?" Steve asked.

"Oh, I wouldn't say fail," Robin answered, "Just to make yourself look like an idiot."

"Thanks," Steve said, sarcastically.

"Ready?" the older woman asked, "She is a moody old thing sometimes, probably older than you."

Steve looked over at the cat that she was talking about and watched as she had to basically pull it from the cage. It was an old gray ball of fluff, the green, yellow eyes looked to be burning with hate even before he put out his hands to take it.

"Here you go," the woman said, before placing the cat in his arms. For a moment it was like time stopped as Steve and the old Lolly looked at one another before the cats eyes lit on fire and what Steve could only say was a scream of madness at him before he felt the sharper nails dig into his skin a moment before the cat threw itself at his face.

Steve let out his own scream before dropping the cat and tripped over his own feet to slam into a birdcage that hung above him and watched as it was sent crashing to the floor where it popped open the little yellow bird was set free. But of course, that wasn't it. The birdcage had ripped open a big bang of dog food and later the sound of running pews made him look to the side where a group of dogs had jumped the small fence and were now running right for him.

Steve saw his life flesh pass his eyes a moment before he was saved by Robin pulling him to the side with her as they watched the dogs start eating the food as if it was their last meal.

For a moment all three of them watched this happen before Steve looked up at the woman who was redder than a tomato now. "So I take it I'm not getting the job then?"

"Get out!" Amy hissed at him and Steve didn't stay to argue with her. He and Robin booked it back outside.

"Well that was awful," Steve said looking out at the main town that was slowly starting to come back to life again after the mall had burned down. Shops once again opening. The once sunny morning now growing into a gray afternoon, another storm looked to be forming over the treeline.

"Ohhhh that was wayyyyy worse than awful that...that was a living nightmare like, the one where you go to school in your underwear but in real life," Robin said before she started laughing, "Only you Steven Harrington can something like that happen to you."

"You know I've never had that nightmare," Steve said as he started for his car.

"Of course you didn't, you probably wished to go to school in your underwear knowing you," Robin said, opening the car door and getting in along with Steve.

"It may surprise you to know but I actually don't think about himself all day, every day," Steve said.

"Sure you don't," Robin said looking out the front window and saw rain start to fall. "But look at the bright side, the pizza place seemed like they were going to call you back."

"You mean call you back, they didn't even let me look into the walk-in freezer like you."

"It was bigger than my bedroom at home," Robin added unhelpfully.

With a sigh, Steve pulled out of the parking lot and they started towards their next job interview at the movie theater.

"You know I've never seen the weather act like this in the summer" Robin said looking out the window as the light rain fell down around them like flower petals, light in the soft wind that had started up, the air getting colder suddenly, "Sure maybe October but not the end of July, it's never rained this much and what's with the fog all of a sudden are... we in a Stephen King novel? I really hope not, that doesn't work out well for anyone."

"It is weird," Steve remarked and felt as if it reminded him of something. Though what of he couldn't say. But he soon forgot as he turned on main street and was surprised to see the sidewalks now empty, for some reason the hair on the back of his neck started to stand, a chill going down his spine. With a look over at Robin, he could tell she was feeling the same way. Both knowing this wasn't normal, it had been a warm summer day moments ago with people all around, but now it was as if everyone had gone home without a trace along with the sun and all warmth.

Steve looked around himself for a moment, the fog rising higher into the air which he had never seen before….almost like it was trying to cover the whole town and suddenly a feeling of dread hit him as he realized what it had reminded him of. The night with those demodogs looked like this...

"Steve lookout!"

Steve was snapped back to reality then as he looked forward and saw a figure standing in front of them. Steve slammed on the breaks before he looked up to see the face of Mr. Keery, the old middle school janitor.

"Is-is that Mr. Keery?" Robin asked, her eyes wide.

"It can't be," Steve answered, the blood now cold in his veins.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked looking at him.

Steve swallowed hard before he answered. "Because he died that night on July the 4th, he had become part of the monster that we killed."

"Then how is he standing in front of us?" Robin asked, her voice shaking now, and Steve saw that their breath was fogging as the air grew more and more cold.

"That's a good question," Steve said as Mr. Keery faced them, his eyes black pools of nothingness as he tipped his head to the side looking at them like a cat looks at a mouse before it goes for the leap. "But I'm not staying to ask. "

Mr. Keery bore his teeth at them and a moment later started to run for the car, but Steve had already put the car into reverse and before whatever that thing was could take another step they were flying backward through the town.

"Steve, there's another one!" Robin said pointing to the back window but Steve had already seen them, he didn't know who they were which made what he did next easier.

He turned the car to the right sending it sliding and with the back of the car hit right into the figure. But instead of a body rolling over the car like in the movies it disappeared in a cloud of mist.

"What the hell are they?" Robin asked looking towards where there should have been a body but there was nothing.

"I don't know but it's not good," Steve said before he swung the car straight and slammed on the gas and they were off like a shot through the empty streets, hitting into figures as they went, all disappearing into mist as the car hit them.

"Where are we headed?" Robin asked looking around them as the fog covered everything in a blanket of nothingness as the fog got thicker, more and more things moving in the grayness out of sight from them. No one around for miles, everyone simply was gone.

"Where everything always starts. At the Byers."

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Wishing you all the best 3 See you tomorrow.


	14. The Mist 14

The Mist

14

Mike

"Her nose is bleeding again," Will said from where he sat next to El. Mike turned and saw he was right. He dropped the radio he had been playing around with trying to get a station mostly for El but also to have some kind of noise in the too-quiet house, he even thought about playing the mixtape he had made but that was just for El. Mike got up and grabbed another tissue and gently wiped the blood away before throwing it in the growing pile in the trash can.

"That's the 4th one in the last five hours," Max said walking back into the room, crossing her arms.

"I know," Mike said, sitting back down on the floor in front of the couch El slept on and look at her a moment before he turned to look at Max, "But I don't think waking her up now would help anything."

"What happens if she doesn't wake up for like a day or two? What do we do then?"

"I believe in El," Mike said, not ever wanting to think of something like that.

Max let out a breath before she sat down in the armchair on the opposite side of the room from him. For a moment they both sat in silence before she spoke again.

"How are you okay with this?" Max asked him finally, "You said it yourself that you love her. But you're letting her be in a coma and have no idea what she's facing right now. "

"Of course I'm not okay with this," Mike answered, "I've watched El sacrifice herself time after time for us, and I hate it every time. I just want us to be normal teens who have to worry about school and what music is on the radio. But she's not and that means we're not either. You were right about it being her choice and that she knows her limits. But I'll stand next to her when she reaches them and help her back up."

Max nodded but he wasn't done. "Why are you so worried about her now when before you were the one telling me to calm down all of a sudden?"

Max looked down not meeting his eyes as she spoke. "I just don't want to see someone else I care about die this summer….After Billy...I don't know if I would be able to handle it again."

Mike nodded and understood what she was saying. They both loved El in a different way they all did and if they lost her….

He shook his head not letting that thought even play for a moment in his head but luckily he didn't have to because just then he heard Dustin and Lucas calling them.

Mike felt his heart stop realizing that there was something in their voices that felt like there was something very wrong going on. He stood then with Max and Will as their friends they came running into the room.

"What's wrong?" Max asked, Lucas as they stopped in front of them. "Look out the window," Dustin answered.

Mike and Max went over to the window as they were told too and he felt a wave of fear go through him as he saw the outside world. It had turned into something from a horror novel. Mist mixed with a thick fog that made it difficult to see the surrounding landscape of the woods and yard. The trees looked like large blurry gray things that loomed over them like menacingly, the ground turned into a cloud that looked like if he took a step out he would fall right through it.

"When did this happen?" Max asked, turning back to Lucas.

"I don't know, we were just looking around the tool shed for something to do until El woke up when we noticed it all of a sudden."

"You didn't notice that it started raining when you were outside?" Max asked, "How did y-"

"Um, guys is everyone inside?" Will asked, joining them to look outside.

Mike turned and shouted out to Nancy and Jonathan from where they were making lunch in the kitchen and in a moment everyone stood in the living room. He did a quick headcount to confirm it before he turned back to Will. "Everyone's here, why?"

"There's something moving around out there, don't you see it?"

Mike turned back to the window at his words, it only took a moment until he saw what Will was talking about. He couldn't see who it was or even if it was a person. Just that the fog moved like when you run your hand through the steam of a boiling pot of water, the fog moving aside to make room for whatever it was.

"It's moving too fast to be a person," Nancy said, joining them at the window along with Jonathan.

"Where is it going?" Max asked.

They all watched as it seemed to go around the side of the house and disappeared from sight before another shadow like figure joined it. Suddenly the world seemed to go very, very still and it was like no one wanted to move, barely breathing as all the lights in the house started to flicker, the only sound left in the world the wind blowing gently through the trees.

Mike breathed out slowly, his breath fogging up the glass in front of him as the air grew cold suddenly his eyes glued to the cloudy world outside when a handprint appeared out of nowhere, the sound of someone hitting the glass making them all jump back.

"Get away from the windows!" Jonathan said grabbing Mike's and Will's arms pulling them away. But it was too late. They watched in horror as whatever was banged on the window over and over again as a crack started to form, spidering outward before it shattered inwards.

Faster then Mike could keep up with Jonathan turned them away from the breaking glass and pushed them away and over towards Nancy who had her arms out, keeping the others behind her.

"Get behind me!" Nancy shouted at them but Mike didn't listen instead he looked over at El's unconscious body on the couch, helpless.

Without thinking he went over and scooped her into his arms before he joined the others behind Nancy as they watched a figure step through the window and seemed to solidify in front of them.

"Bruce Lowe?!" Nancy said, her voice going high with fear.

"Hello again Nancy Drew," Bruce said with a sickening smile, black ink dripping from his lips to fall to the floor.

"Really?" Jonathan said under his breath, remaining the last time he had seen the other man, the bruises he still had from the fight before he swung out with a fist but the other man simply stood there as Jonathan's fist when right thought him.

"That's not fair," Jonathan said right before Bruce made his own fist and when he swung out it hit Jonathan in the side of the ribs, knocking the air out of him before the older man swung again and hit him in the jaw faster than everyone could keep open with.

They watched frozen in place as Jonathan hit the floor hard, the breath knocked out of him as he held his side but still tried to get up a moment later only to have the older man grab the collar of his t-shirt and slam him back to the ground over and over again a punch to Jonathan's stomach finally made Nancy move even with the memory of that night at the hospital.

"Jonathan!" Nancy shouted snapping but to reality. She ran forward and grabbed an empty flower vase and slammed it over his head as hard as she could. Surprisingly it broke over his head as he was solid unlike what had happened with Jonathan but it didn't seem to hurt him as it would have less than a month ago.

"Oh Nancy, that was the wrong thing to do," Bruce said, turning to face her.

Nancy took a step away but it was too late. Bruce grabbed for her and Nancy jumped back only to be cornered, her back hitting into the wall.

"How are you going to get out of this one Nancy Drew?"

"Good question," Dustin said, moving away from his friends before he grabbed the closest thing to him, a book off the floor and threw it only to have Bruce grab it from the air before it hit him.

"Well that's the first time a good book has failed me," Dustin said as the older man turned on him. But before he could take a step. The house was flooded with light from the outside. A second later Bruce disappeared into a mist as whoever it was outside started honking a car horn.

For a moment they all simply looked at one another not sure what had just happened, why had he disappeared? before the car honked again and it caught their attention.

Nancy was the first to move as she ran over to Jonathan and helped him up as Max went to the front door and opened to see Steve and Robin running up the porch but stopped when they saw the door open.

"Have you guys seen what happened?" Steve asked as everyone ran out of the house, Mike still carrying an unconscious El in his arms and Jonathan leading on Nancy, a dark bruise already forming on his cheek.

"You mean the people that should be dead walking around and the fog that is probably out to kill us?" Dustin said, "Yeah we've seen it."

"We need to get out of here," Nancy said looking at Steve and Robin as they made their way to the cars. "We need to stick together."

"Yeah of course but where are we going to go the whole town is like this, there's nobody around either. It's like a ghost town."

Mike shared a look with everyone at that new knowledge. That this wasn't just here but everywhere.

"It doesn't matter, we can't stay here," Nancy said because it was true, looking around there was still things moving in the fog, but keeping away from them for now.

"Sounds like a sound plan," Steve said, running over to his car and opened the door as Dustin, Lacus, Max, and Robin all got in.

Will opened the door for Mike who laid El down gently before he got in next to her, pulling her upper body to lay on his lap.

"Will catch."

Will turned in time to catch the walkie talkie Dustin threw at him before he got into the car and a moment later Nancy it and they pulled away, Steve followed after them. All unsure what was happening but know that wherever they went they couldn't escape they would have to fight, how was the real question. How do you fight a ghost?

AN

Thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Wishing you all the best 3 Sorry for not posting yesterday, had a bit of a headache but feeling better now.


	15. 15 Froze

15

Froze 

~

Mike

"This is Dustin, do you copy?" 

"Copy," Will answered as Nancy drove slowly through the fog, gray spaces moving around just out of sight. The world swallowed in a cloud the danger hiden within it all around them. They couldn't see anything besides five feet in front of them it but that didn't mean they couldn't feel it, something was watching them, from where they didn't know.

"You guys have any ideas for a plan?" Dustin asked.

Both cars were silent a moment because no one had any idea what this was, what was happening or what could even be done. They had already seen that it didn't matter if you hit them, even with a car it did nothing, they could disappear but yet they could hit you without even thinking about it. They were simply ghosts.

"Nice to know no one else knows what's going on as well," They heard Steve say, "By the way what happened to El?"

Mike shot a look at Will knowing there was a lot to unpack and a lot to fill him in on. Mike reached over for the walkie talkie and hit the button to speak but instead felt his eyes go wide as he looked out his window. 

"Shit" He said instead before he turned in his seat to watch as a figure stepped out of the fog and in front of Steve's car but of course the car simply went through it. A moment later his attention was caught as Nancy gasped. Looking forward he watched as another person stepped in front of the car and Mike noticed that shadows were closing in from all sides. 

Nancy hit the gas and they drove right through them, droplets of water exploring across the window.

"What are they doing?" Jonathan asked as more people started to step in front of the cars making it hard to see and drive but they found out what they were trying to do not a second later. 

"Shit," Nancy said as she had to turn suddenly as the windshield wiper cleared away the water just in time for them to see that a tree had fallen in front of them. 

"Hold on everyone!" Nancy said as she turned the wheel to the right and a moment later they jumped on to the sidewalk, the car rocking them all side to side like a rollercoaster off the rails barely missing the tree before going back on to the road. But just as suddenly a stop sign flue in front of them. This time she wasn't able to stop in time and the sign hit the car head-on. 

The sound of metal hitting metal sounded all around them before Nancy drove over it and turned into another street. "We can't keep doing this," Nancy said finally. Everyone on edge waiting for something else to be thrown at them.

"Guys, do you copy?" 

"Yes," Mike answered, "What is it?" 

"I just noticed that we're going in circles."

"You're sure?" Mike asked, having believed the same thing but just didn't want it to be true because that met only one thing.

"We've passed the same pizza place three times now."

"What do you think they want?" Steve asked.

"El," Mike and Max said in unison. 

"Where do we go?" Lucas asked, "We can't go home, we can't drive forever and if we stop somewhere their just attack us again."

"We need to get somewhere cold," Will said in almost a whisper.

Mike looked over at him and saw that he was thinking of something. "What did you say?" 

"Whatever those things are, they're made from mist and mist is just water droplets suspended in the atmosphere and if it gets too cold…. "

"It freezes!" Dustin shouted over the walkie talkie excitedly, "Will you're a genius."

"Thanks," Will said quietly.

"Wait why is that genius?" Steve asked.

"Because you can hit ice and break it, dummy," Robin answered him.

"That's great to know, but where can we go that has a freezer or cooler big enough to cool a whole room?" Lucas asked.

Both cars went silent a moment before to their surprise Steve spoke up. "I think I may actually know a place we can go."

"Where?" Max asked.

"Harbour's Pizzeria, it's got a walk-in freezer bigger than Robins bedroom."

"How does he know it's bigger than Robin's bedroom?" Jonathan asked.

"Where is it?" Mike said. 

"It's the next street over next to Lorie's flower shop."

Nancy hit the gas once more and within ten minutes both cars parked outside. Mike looked around the car and saw that gray shapes moving around the fog starting to surround them.

"How are we going to do this?" Nancy asked.

"We will probably just have to run for it," Lucas answered. 

"He's not wrong," Will said, "there's no way we can fright them.

"On three?" Robin asked.

"On three," Nancy answered. 

With that Dustin started the countdown.

"Three."

Will grabbed the door handle as Mike picked El back up from where he had been holding on to her the whole ride, not letting her go once. Ready to jump out.

"Two," 

Max grabbed Lucas's hand and held onto it as they got ready to open the door.

"One!"

With that everyone jumped out of the cars and made a break for the restaurant. "I'll break the door down, " Steve shouted at them and ran toward the door but to everyone surpise the door was open and unlocked. They watched as Steve slammed himself against the door only to fall flat on his right side inside store. 

"Steve are you alright?" Nancy asked as everyone met at the door.

"Fine," Steve croaked, before he got up and moved further into the building. Mike ran in from the growing number of shapes and watched as his friends ran through the glass door but as he looked past them to the foggy world he saw figures moving in on them and felt his heart drop as a hand reached out of the mist towards Max. 

"Max look out!" Mike shouted as the hand wrapped around her shoulder and juked her backwards.

Max let out a scream but thankfully grabbed the door frame the only thing that kept her from being pulled back into the fog.

"Shit!" Dustin said as he and Lacus grabbed her other arm and started to pull her back but the figures held onto her.

"Move!" Rubin shouted at them before she threw a pizza pan.

Dustin and Lucas jumped back as the pan flue pass them and just missed Max hitting into the figures holding on to her. For a moment they turned smokly before forming into a solid again, but it had been enough time for Max to pull herself free and Lucas grabbed her pulling her into his arms as Dustin slammed the door shut.

For a second they all stood there all breathing as the figures started to bang on the window and door, but this time the glass was thicker and they wouldn't be able to break it as early.

"Where do you learn to throw like that?" Steve said, finally looking at Robin.

"I was the captain of the softball team in high school," she answered simply.

"Guys!" Nancy said.

They turned to see that Nancy had gone around the counter and stood next to a man lying on the floor, unmoving. 

"Is-is he dead?" Max asked.

Nancy kneeled next to him and gently took his wrist. For a moment no one spoke before Nancy let out a relieved breath. "He's alive but unconscious."

"Do you think that's what happened to everyone?" Dustin asked.

"I think so," Steve said from the back of the shop. Everyone went over to where he stood and found another three employees laying on the floor, they had been clearly working before they had simply passed out. 

"Did the fog do this?" Jonathan asked.

"It must be," Robin said, "Me and Steve had been going to job interviews this morning and afternoon and after leaving one is when the fog started rolling in and everyone disappeared out of nowhere."

"But why is everyone inside and no one is on the sidewalk or in cars?" Nancy asked.

"Maybe that's the point," Mike said, "We know that the people made from the Mist are the same ones who the mind flayer was made out of. Maybe they want us to be awake by ourselves." 

"But if they were after El wouldn't it be better to get to her if we were out of the way?" Max asked.

"What...what if their not after El?" Mike said, "What if they want us." 

"Why would they want us? We can't do anything," Lacus said.

"Because we helped kill it. We stopped the monster and if it can't get to El why not go after us to hurt her instead," Mike said.

Everyone was quite a long second before Jonathan spoke up. "Where was that freezer again?" 

"Over here, Robin said and showed them. They opened it and found it was a good size, the size of a bedroom like they had said, the silver walls caked with ice, the floor padded with black foram. "I'm going to go find the thermostat and see if I can turn it down and really get this place cold," Jonathan said before he turned and left Nancy following after him. 

"What to help me look for weapons?" Robin asked Steve. 

"What are you going to use against ghosts?" Steve asked but still followed after her anyway, "Come on Dustin you're coming too."

"How am I going to help?" Dustin said but followed after Steve all the same.

Max walked in first holding her arms to her chest trying to keep warm. Mike went in after her and gently laid El down before her sat next to her. Once again her nose started bleeding again and this time he simply wiped at it with his shirt sleeve.

"Me and Will are going to keep a watch on those things," Lucas said.

"Okay I'll join you later," Max said watching after them before turning to Mike.

"Do you think she's okay?" Max asked, sitting down across from him, "Where ever she is." 

"It's the only thing I can hope for, it's the only thing that's keeping me from panicking at this point," Mike said, moving a piece of hair out of her face behind her ear. For a moment they were both quiet before a sudden shout caught their attention.

Max and Mike sheared a look before the world went dark.

Happy Easter everyone!!!! As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Wishing you all the best :D


	16. The Mill 16

16

The Mill

El

El ran into the tall yellowing grass that stood only inches shorter than herself, she stopped after a few minutes of running, listening. But the only sound was her own heart racing in her ears. There was no wind to make the dead trees that stood around her rassle, or the sound of field mice running around to move the grass or even the sound of another living creature in this dead world. She had long ago lost those bird-like things after running into a barn a few miles back and locked them in. They had followed her in only to find that she had been waiting outside to close the doors on them. But she had a feeling that other monster's waited for her around every corner.

As she started forward again it was for the first time she wondered where the upside-down had come from. It was like someone had photocopied Hawkins but forgot to use the color, instead, it had been turned into a black and white copy that felt wholly wrong, empty of any light or warmth. But she didn't even know if this was the real upside down, maybe this was all in her head. The chilling thought that kept her awake at night sometimes hit her then, the thought that this was made by her in the first place... She was suddenly snapped away from that line of thinking as the sound of something moving out there caught her attention.

She looked around herself a moment but the dry grass was too tall for her to see much of anything. El took a step backwards and stopped to listen again to hear if anything moved. But no. Everything was silent again. She started to move faster towards the building once again, she could just see the top of the old roof over the yellowing grass now. She bit her lip as she got closer, something felt off, and not just the feeling that this whole world had, but like someone...something was watching her...following her.

But there wasn't a sound around for miles and miles, only her own footfall of grass breaking under her feet and heavy breathing from the running all night. But still, that creeping feeling of something out there following made her heart start to beat faster and her hurried steps turned to jog.

She could see the front of the Brimborn Steel Works Mill now, the old building rising far above her. She let out a relieved breath when finally the sound of something snapping made her jump and turn around, red lightning lighting up the world for a moment, but it did nothing to help her see what was out there.

Not a moment later El sent out a burst of power all around her. The grass flattened instantly from all sides and as she looked up she met the eyes of the thing making the sounds. It was a demodog, bigger than the ones they had seen the year before. It growled at her as it slowly made it's way towards her, like a cat with a mouse.

She took a slow step back, as she looked around herself, now that the grass had been knocked down El found that there was more than one, way more than one. Maybe 12 in all. How they had been so quiet all this time she didn't know, but they were all around her, all moving slowly towards her, courting her in.

Closer and closer they got to her, but she didn't move, didn't run like her mind was screaming at her too. Instead, she sucked in a breath and let it out as they all suddenly leaped for her. But before they could touch her she threw her arms out and sent them all flying back. It wasn't far but it was enough for her to get a head start from them.

She started running towards the Mill as fast as she could, but her head felt fuzzy, blood dripping down her lips to fall to the ground, the only thing she could do now was run, she didn't know how much more she would be able to use her powers without passing out.

The large front doors stood open, almost welcoming now as the tall grass thinned around her, but she heard the sound of the demodogs gaining on her, but she didn't dare look back. The only thought was to get into the building.

El jumped over old tires and rusty metal as the growled got closer and closer to her. But she finally reached the doors.

She ran into the old building and turned in time to see the demodogs only a few feet from her now. She grabbed one of the large doors and with all the strength she had left pulled it closed before she ran over to the other door that was almost halfway closed and pulled it the rest of the way closed just as one of the demodogs leaped for her, it's mouth open and clawed arm out reaching for her.

She felt burning pain race down her arm as the demodog slammed it's self into the closing door, only it's hand keeping the door open now as the others growled at her and clawed at the door.

With one last burst of energy from her powers, El ripped the hand from the arm, black blood spilling onto the floor as she finally closed the door and pulled the deadbolt down.

The sound of something heavy slamming into the metal echoed out around her as she fell to her knees, exhausted. For a long moment, she stayed on the ground, her head pounding as she slowly wiped the blood away from her nose, the sound of the demodogs right outside trying to get in by clawing at the door and slamming themselves against it.

Bang!

srreekk

Bang!

srreekk

Bang!

She looked down at her arm to see a long deep cut running from her wrist to the middle her arm, red blood dripping down her pale skin. El bit her lip as she tried to wipe at the blood but the pain sent stars dancing in her eyes. After what felt like forever the pain dimmed a little, but it still dripped blood. El knew she needed to stop the bleeding, but with what she didn't know.

She took a long deep breath before she stood up, her head swimming a moment before it cleared and she looked around herself. The building looked much the same as she had seen it when she had first looked into seeing what Billy had been doing that fateful day, but this time it was covered in vines, ashy dust fell around her from the broken window above her, but it seemed slower than outside, like the first snow of the year.

She started forward-looking all around herself unsure exactly where she was going but she did know what she was looking for...that was besides something to stop the bleeding. She went around the ground floor, a broken window let in light every now and then as red lighting streaked across the sky lighting the room. Old steel beams sat around rusting, abandoned tools and machines she couldn't name all around her, the shadows of what this place was once showing in the dark.

As she turned the counter from behind a large machine she stopped suddenly as a small room caught her attention. She went over to it and found it was a locker room. Locker doors stood open, the old blue paint chipping off of them. She went over to one that stood open and found a dusty coverall, hanging halfway off a hanger.

Without thinking too much about how long that had been sitting there or what could have touched it, she ripped a long piece off and wrapped it around the cut. It hurt like hell, and her version blurred around the edges as she knotted the end tightly, but at least the bleeding had stopped. She walked out of the small room, wondering when...and if she woke up she would have the cut still...if it was really just a dream she wouldnt...would she?

Her attention was caught suddenly as she was hit with freezing air out of nowhere, she turned towards it and found a staircase. The railings catching in the red lightning that flashed and as she walked closer El found it was where the cold air was coming from like someone had a fan facing the states sending wave after wave of freezing air up into the ground floor.

She stopped in front of it but couldn't see a thing, it looked like a dark hole that could lead to anything...or anyone. As the room was lit once again she saw what looked to be dried blood on the bottom of the rails, as if someone had held on to them before being pulled down into the freezing darkness. Spots of red, brown blood leading down on the first few metal steps that she could see. With one last breath that fogged faintly in front of her as she grabbed one of the handrails and started down one step at a time into the darkness.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I'm putting a little foreshadowing in this chapter and maybe the next few for the next fanfic I'm doing thinking of doing which is my own take on season 4 because the filming as been put on hold because of what is happening right now in the world and it would be fun. I also hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Wishing you all the best :D See you all tomorrow for chapter 17.


	17. Lies 17

17

Lies

El

El was inclosed by darkness for what felt like forever, each step away from the ground floor it seemed the air was getting colder and colder, her breath fogging up in front of her as goosebumps rose on her arms, the metal railing growing so cold that by the time she reached the last step it felt like it was burning her hand.

She hopped off the last step and found herself in a room just a little smaller than the main floor above her, this one packed with stuff but everything had been pushed to the sides of the room leaving the middle open and free...as if it had been set open for a meeting.

El walked to the middle slowly looking around herself to see no one around her unlike what she had hoped for. The faint sound of the demodogs trying to get in was the only sound that seemed to be in this abandoned world besides her own footsteps and the beating of her heart, the dead world above her seeming so far away now.

El turned around herself looking up to see a broken skylight, some light slipped in when red lighting flashed but dirt covered it for the most part and was the reason why she hadn't seen it before. With a flick of her head, the last few glass panels shuttered, the glass raining down around her but never touching her, landing in a circle all around her instead. Red lightning flashing above her to light the room once more as suddenly the sound of footsteps echoed out from behind her.

"Now why did you do that?"

El turned towards the voice and found Billy standing there, but she could tell if wasn't the same Billy that had once lived or even the Billy who had been possessed this month. No. This was what Will called the shadow monster. Something they own knew one thing about. It wanted her dead.

"Where are the others?" El asked seeing it was only Billy standing in the empty room as another flash of red lightning lit them both showing the black veins that stood out more than they ever have before now, ringing his eyes, his neck, his hands. Black inky water dripping to the floor to pool there around him.

"Why are you asking about them? Isn't it me you want to.… " he laughed a little before he spoke again, "Save?"

"They're after my friends aren't they?" El asked even if she knew the answer, hated the answer.

"Yes. But you already knew that didn't you?" He said tipping his head to the side as he looked at her, maybe sizing her up, for what she didn't know, maybe didn't what to know.

"They're stronger than you think," El said simply, not letting the fear she felt for her friends show on her face, at least she hoped as much.

"Oh I know, but without you, they'll never win, your the only one that has any real power after all."

El said nothing as he stepped forward to stand in front of her and with a cold finger he tipped her chin up to face him, but she didn't dare flinch at his touch. "But you know it doesn't need to be this way. We can work together to stop him for good…...and maybe even save your dare, Hopper."

She felt her eyes go wide with horror as she heard that name. How did he know that name! How did this monster know about Hopper? How did it know any of this stuff, knew about her life and friends?

El stumbled backward as every bit of warmth left her body finally, her heart seeming to stop. "W-what did you just say?! How do you know any of this?! What are you?!" She shouted as panic started to grip her.

He smiled at her with blanken teeth. "That's a long story, but we don't have time after all your...Hopper, don't you want to see him again? Don't you him away from the hell he is in right now?"

El felt her eyes start to burn, tears starting to form, but she wouldn't let them fall as she spoke, "You're lying!"

"Am I?" he said and before she knew what was happening he placed a hand on the side her hand.

Suddenly she was hit with blinking light. After being in the dark for so long it took a moment before she could see, a ringing in her ears. But when she finally was able to blink away the dancing spots she found that she was standing in the snow. El felt her eyes go wide as she turned around herself, but it was like the whole world was made of snow, but far off in the distance there looked to be a building.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. again I'm putting a little more foreshadowing in the chapters for the next fanfic I'm doing thinking of doing which is my own take on season 4 that i will be starting as soon as this little story is over. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Stay safe everyone :D


	18. On Ice

18

On Ice

Mike

Mike blinked in surprise at the sudden darkness that they had just been thrown into. "Max?" Mike said as he got to his feet being careful of El's unconscious form lying next to him.

"I'm here," Max said and a moment later he felt her grab his arm.

"Where are the others? " he asked as it hit him how silent the world had gone, there wasn't anyone shouting or even the sound of footsteps moving around like their own.

"I don't know," Max answered as they slowly made their way out of the cooler and into the far to quiet back room, no one moving around, no one talking even. "Something feels wrong," Max said.

Mike nodded knowing she was right as they made their way into the front room where Will and Lucas said they would be watching the windows and door, but from the little light that came through the glass door they found nothing. No one was there. The ghostly figures still standing outside, but they weren't banging to get in anymore, they simply stood there looking in at them. Like they were waiting for something….But for what?

"Where's Lucas?" Max asked, and Mike could hear the panic rising in her voice and it was the same for him. Where was everyone?

"Okay... I think Nancy and Jonathan went to find the thermostat," Mike said, going back to the back room and noticed than just how cold it had gotten, it had been cold before but now it was to the point of making water freeze, which was a good sign, maybe they had found it. Maybe that's where everyone was.

"Where do you think the thermostat would be?" Max asked following after him.

"I think they said downstairs," Mike answered as he felt his way over to the back of the room where he remembered seeing a door, his eyes not yet adjusted to the deep darkness. After a moment he found what felt like a door handle and opened it to…. He couldn't tell. It looked to be just a black hole, he couldn't even see the staircase.

"Well this will be fun," Mike said trying to lighten the mood….that or make himself feel better, he didn't know which one before he took a step into the dark. Thankfully he found a hand railing as he stepped onto the first step, the only thing that told him he was actually headed downwards.

Before he knew it he had reached the last step and jumped off and looked back to see Max following only a step behind.

Mike looked around himself, his eyes finally adjusted to the dark and found they were in a room far smaller than the one above them. There wasn't much, an old heater in the corner, a couple of boxes here and there and two doors. One of which stood open and the other halfway closed.

"I don't like this game," Max said, joining him as they both looked at the doors.

"It's fine, Nancy and Jonathan are behind one of them," Mike said trying to sound far more sure then he really felt before he randomly picked one and went over to the one that was closed all the way.

With a deep breath, he twisted the door handle and found to his own surprise he had been right.

"Nancy, Jonathan what are you doing?!"

Mike watched as Nancy jumped and as she looked up at him and Max who had joined them with wide eyes he saw the pink marks on Jonathan's neck from where they had been kissing.

"You both were really making out at a time like this?"

"No," Nancy said, hurriedly pulling away from Jonathan who looked just as surprised to see them so suddenly, "I mean we didn't plan for it, it's just we found the thermostat and then one thing led to another….why didn't you knock?"

"We're in a basement, why the hell would I have to knock?" Mike asked.

"Okay," Max said stepping forward. "We came down here looking for Will and Lucas. They're missing, and the lights went out, didn't you notice?"

"Missing?" Jonathan asked, alarmed now.

"How could they be missing?" Nancy asked.

"After the lights went out they were just gone," Mike said.

"Well where Steve, Robin, and Dustin?" Nancy asked.

Mike felt his heart sink not even having thought about them before thinking they would be down here too. For a moment they all looked at one another before they turned for the staircase. Mike followed after everyone and was just about to take the first step up but turned back around.

The other room stood there with its half-open door. Mike swallowed as everyone else went up, he let out a foggy breath before he turned back.

"What are you doing?" Max asked, stopping halfway up to look back at him, Nancy and Jonathan both disappearing into the room above.

"We didn't check the other room," Mike said walking back over to it.

Max bit her lip a long moment before she followed after him.

Mike stopped in front of the door and as he did he heard something. The sound of voices talking in low whispers.

Mike looked over his shoulder to Max to see that she heard them too. Without thinking any more about what could be on the other side Mike pushed open the door and Max followed right after him.

"Why are we down here again?" Will asked.

"I'm thirsty," Lucas answered from where he was leading over an icebox.

"Shouldn't we be worried about the power going out?" Will asked, crossing his arms.

"Will it's okay, we're going back up in just a minute, those things aren't getting in, so don't worry so much."

"You should be worried about me killing you!"

Mike watched as Lucas's eyes went wide as he turned to find him and Max in the doorway.

"Want a soda?" He asked sheepishly, holding up a can.

Max let out a long breath before she jumped at him.

Mike had to grab her arm to keep her from probably literally killing him at that moment.

"We thought you two were missing dumbass!"

"It was his idea," Will said pointing to Lucas, who in turn gave him a dry look.

"Thanks, Will," Lucas said before he turned to Max. "I didn't know the power would go out after we got down here."

"Why didn't you come back up then?"

"Will we were already down here and-" Lucas started but he would never get to finish his sentence because just then the sound of glass breaking made them all go silent.

"Was that…." Max started but didn't finish her sentence as they all looked up to the ceiling instinctually.

"The door," Mike confirmed.

They all turned towards the hall then and without saying a word they all ran upstairs and into the dining room where Nancy and Jonathan stood.

Mike felt his eyes go wide, the glass to the door had been broken and mist started to pour in like a cloud on a rainy day.

"What do we do?" Will asked as they all started to step back as the mist started to form into human-like shapes making their way towards them.

"We can't touch them," Max said as they all stepped back into the kitchen now.

Suddenly the closet door next to them opened to reveal Steve, Dustin, and Robin all holding cleaning supplies.

For a moment everyone just looked at them before the sound of something falling over made them turn back.

"Look Will was right, they're turning to ice!" Lucas said. He was right, the noise had been one of those things falling over a chair as its body froze where it now lay shattered into millions of glittering pieces.

"Oh this will be fun," Steve said and before everyone could stop him he ran out of the kitchen and started swinging the handle of a mop around. Some of the figures that we're further into the shop broke but the ones that were just coming in simply disappeared for a moment before reappearing.

"Steve lookout!" Robin called and ran forward grabbing his arm just in time as one of them went for his neck.

In a flash, everyone went for the closet and grabbed a makeshift weapon, and ran into the middle of an outright battle.

Mike followed after Max and hit out at anything his broom handle could reach one after another he watched shatter to nothingness.

But as he looked up and out the window there were so many more. It was a terrifying number, not just because it was more to fight but it was all of the people who had been killed. People they had known, not well but that didn't change the fact that the monster was nothing but evil to end so many lives.

Mike was just about to swing out again but Nancy stopped him suddenly. "Mike you need to stay with El, more of those things are coming in, and if one gets to her when she's alone…"

Mike nodded even though he hated to leave his friends they seemed to be doing fine for the most part.

He turned away and went back into the freezer and found El right where he had left her. With a breath he turned to face the door he won't let anything get past him. But he hoped she would wake up soon, not just because all of this would end, but he wanted her back from where ever she was.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. again I'm putting a little more foreshadowing in the chapters for the next fanfic I'm doing thinking of doing which is my own take on season 4 that i will be starting as soon as this little story is over tho this one didn't really have much if any. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Stay safe everyone :D


	19. 19  Ghosts

AN

Sorry for the week of not posting, but I just wanted to write as much of the rest of the story as i could before posting again because I really want to have a chapter a day plus i want to start writing my take on season 4 starting as soon as this little story is over which in this chapter and the next are heavy foreshadowing things I plan to follow up on. As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Stay safe everyone :D See you all tomorrow.

19

Ghosts

El

El felt her heart pick up as panic set in, light snow started to fall around them, though she didn't seem to feel the cold that she should have. She turned to Billy where he simply stood there, watching her. "Where are we?! What is this place? Who is him that you want to stop?!"

He only gave her a small crooked smile, "It's not going to be that easy."

El felt anger start to rise in her now, replacing the ever-growing fear….but if Hopper was here then she would do what it wanted….for now.

"Fine, what but at least tell me what that building is down there."

"That is what you're here to find out."

El bit her lip and looked towards the building again, it was the color of a stormy gray sky, and was far bigger than Hawkins' lab in length, maybe the size of four or five of them all put together, gates lining all sides.

"This is crazy," El breathed.

"Oh, it's going to get crazier."

Suddenly El felt a freezing hand touch her upper arm making her jump and look back at him but in that blink of an eye they weren't on the snowy hill 30 miles away from the buildings, but feet away from one. She let out a gasp of surprise and looked around herself disoriented, they were in the gates now, one of the tall buildings casting its long shadow over them.

"How-how did you do that?" El asked turning to him, but he was already walking away from her.

She started to follow after but stopped as she spotted what looked to be tents in the distance, wood, and metal sitting in a truck and people walking in a line towards it, what looked like chains on their legs keeping them all together.

"Who are those people?" El asked, watching them.

"Their nobodies, simply prisoners."

"Prisoners of what?"

"They're not who we're here for," Billy said, walking past her and towards a building….as if he knew where he was going.

She hurried to catch up to him, the thin layer of snow not making a sound as they walked when she knew it should have been crunching under them. But she didn't have the time to follow that train of thought as they reached a door that had a padlock.

El watched him wondering how he would unlock it but he turned back to look at her instead.

"Give me your hand," he said, reaching out his own for her to take.

She hesitated a moment, she didn't know what he wanted to show her, didn't even know who this was. Sure it wore the face of Billy but it wasn't. This was something else and it was smart.

But she took it all the same because honestly, she wanted to know what he wanted from her.

He turned back to the door and they walked through it. Literary walked through the door ….like ghosts. It was like going through a tunnel. Everything going dark and then suddenly they were in a building lit with dim yellow lights.

Billy started walking down a gray concrete hall and she followed after him again but as she did she looked around trying to figure out where she was. People walked all around them, everyone was in a greenish uniform, with hats that reminded her of a puffball on their heads, and that almost made her smile at how silly it looked. But it fell as she saw everyone seemed to be carrying a gun, from some people who had smaller ones in their packets to ones almost as tall as herself.

They spoke a language she couldn't understand, but it reminded her of something, a time two years ago when she had been asked to translate something.….but that had been so long ago now she had no hope of remembering what it had been called.

"Why can't they see us? " El asked, and to her surprise, he answered this one question as they turned into another hall though it looked just like the other one with its gray concrete walls, and it's matching floor.

"Because we're not really here, only our shadows are."

"Shadows?" El asked, more to herself than him but he didn't answer so she was left to wonder what that meant. Was it like when she was trying to find someone in her mind using her own powers? But this wasn't anything like hers, that she could tell somehow, this felt ...off. She couldn't say how but it was like it wasn't happening now, everything feeling faraway.

Suddenly she was snapped out of her thoughts as they came to a stop at a metal door, a padlock next to it.

"An elevator?" El asked, wondering why they had stopped here if he could just walk through walls.

"We're going down," he said simply.

The doors opened a moment later to what looked like a red basket stained with spots of brown that could have been rust…..or dried blood.

El bit at her lip nervously as Billy stepped into it and she knew she had to follow. She stepped next to him and not a moment later two men got in making it sway side to side before they pressed a green button. Not a second later they started to go down and El gripped for the side to have something to hang on too.

El looked around herself as they went, there were so many levels that she lost count after the 29th. Floor after floor there were closed metal doors, how many actually had people behind them she didn't know. But every now and then she would hear someone scream out from below them.

She felt a shiver go down her back as goose bump started to rise on her arms. She wouldn't lie, she was scared of this place, but if Hopper was alive she would do anything, even if it meant following a monster into hell.

The elevator stopped suddenly and the two men stepped out onto one of the numberless floors.

El looked over to Billy wondering if this was their stop.

"Come on," he said and followed after the men leaving her to jog after him. They walked down what seemed to be an endless hall passing door after door. El looked over the railings and felt her eyes go wide in shock. They were still stories from the ground floor, she couldn't even see the bottom from here.

She stopped suddenly as the two men stopped in front of a row of doors. One of the men went to unlock a door but the other one stopped him, saying something that she couldn't understand.

Instead, he went over to the door next to it and opened it to reveal a man with dirty long hair, too skinny, and started to beg.

She watched in horror as the two guards pulled the man from his room and started to drag towards a staircase, the man screaming.

El covered her mouth as they started going down the stairs and she moved to follow after them, she didn't know what they were going to do to that other man but she knew that it was bad. But she was stopped by a painful grip on her upper arm.

She turned back to see Billy looking blankly at her, there was no emotion in his face at all. El jerked her arm away and took a few steps from him. "Don't touch me!" She hissed.

"If you think you can save that man, you're wrong. He's already a dead man walking, and anyway, he's not who you're here for…..right?" He asked.

She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood because she hated that he was right, she was here for one person and that was Hopper. "Yes."

"That's what I thought," he said and without another word, he turned on his heel and started walking down the hall again.

El looked towards the staircase they had gone down once more, the man's screams still ringing out faintly, but a moment later she turned away before she followed after Billy.

They walked until they reached the end of the hall and found another elevator deeper in the building than the last one, this one looking much the same as the last one. Billy opened the gate and they both got in, a second later he pressed a yellow button and they started to go down in an instant.

They both stood in silence for what felt like forever but could only have been minutes until the elevator came to a stop and they both stepped out into a very different hallway than the ones she had seen before.

This one was far cleaner, the hall white, with titled flooring, all lit by blight humming lights and there weren't any people with guns walking around and no screaming that she could hear and only a few normal-looking doors.

El wondered which one they would be going through but not a second later Billy answered her question by walking straight for the last door at the very end of the hall.

To her surprise when they reached it he stopped and simply looked at it for a long moment before he took a step back.

"Open it."

She looked up at him shocked, "Why me?"

"You're the one who needs to see it."

El didn't know what that meant but with one last breath, she turned the handle and pushed open the door.


	20. 20  Status:

20

Status:

El

She walked in and found something she wasn't expecting. It was an office. A simple office. She looked back at Billy but found him simply watching her.

"What is this?" She asked unsure what he wanted her to see in here because there wasn't much. A large desk, a red desk chair, a bookcase and filing cabinet to the sides of the room, a stack of paper and a folder next to the large white computer that buzzed faintly through the room and a white lab coat hanging on the back of the door.

"Look at the folder," he said.

"What's in it?" El asked walking further into the small room and closer to the folder.

"See for yourself," he said, coming into the room and stood in front of the door, arms crossed.

El looked at him for a long moment wondering what this was all about but made her way around the desk anyway, this was for hopper she repeated in her head over and over again trying to keep her calm. She sat down and looked at the computer that glowed light blue, trying to get any clue as to where she was one last time but all it showed was green numbers. She sucked in a deep breath before she looked back down and carefully opened the tan-colored folder.

Inside she found a ringed binder, the front page was stamped with a red bird that looked like an Eagle its wings spread out as it looked right at her. A word had been crossed out and replaced with Другой written in black.

She flipped past it and to the first page, but she was surprised to find it was in English, not the mystery language they spoke here, but it really didn't help her with figuring out what any of it meant as she read.

Name: Dr. Augustyn S. Lason

Address: 3631 Ulica Maya

Poland, 45204

Birthday: June 11, 1943

Age: 43 years old

Project: GATE 01.

Status: Dead.

Under that, there was a photo of who she could only guess was Dr. Augustyn S. Lason, his black hair just starting to gray, his green eyes staring right at her. She flipped to the next page and found much the same thing, a name, and a photo.

Name: Dr. Mildred W. Sanders

Address: 718 Grim Avenue

San Diego, CA 92101.

Birthday: November 18, 1957.

Age: 28 years old.

Project: GATE 01.

Status: Dead.

Over and over she flipped through the pages reading name after name, looking at photo after photo.

Name: Dr. James T. Thayer

Address: REDACTED

Birthday: December 5, 1946

Age: 39 years old.

Project: GATE. 02

Status: Alive.

Name: Dr. Adam M. Vinson

Address: Storgatan 51

310 38 SIMLÅNGSDALEN

Birthday: September 15, 1962

Age: 23 years old

Project: GATE. 01

Status: Dead

Name: Dr. Antonio REDACTED

Address:4968 Camden Place

Conway, SC 29526

Birthday: May 11, 1940

Age: 45 years old

Project: GATE. 02

Status: Alive.

Name: Dr. Stephen F. Armstrong

Address: 3856 Logan Lane

Germany 97863

Birthday: REDACTED

Age: :REDACTED

Project: GATE. 02

Status: Alive

Name: Dr. Alexei R. Andreyev

Address:1528 Kelly Drive

Hawkins IN 47869

Birthday: October 30, 1954

Age:29 years old

Project: REDACTED

Status: Dead

El flipped to the next page still not sure why she was reading this, this book filled with random doctors living around the world who had it seemed no meaning, not to her anyway.

That was until she saw the name on the next page. Feeling her heart drop to the bottom of her stomach and her head start to spin as she read what was under it.

Name: Dr. Martin K. Brenner

Address: REDACTED

Birthday: July 17, 1931

Age:54 years old

Project: REDACTED

Status: Alive

She could only stare at the page blankly, the word "Alive" was the only thing she could think of as a feeling of dread filled every part of her body.

Alive

Alive

Alive

Alive

Alive

He was alive...

"Do you see what I mean now?" Billy asked, "Do you understand now why we need to work together?"

El felt her breathing pick up as the burning behind her eyes returned, but this time she didn't stop them from falling down her cheeks, so many emotions hit her at once for that name, sorrow, fear, hatred, and deep, deep down though she hated herself for it fondness. She got up from the chair slowly and walked around the desk in a daze, a feeling like she was going to throw up in the back of her throat as she held on to the desk to keep herself upright.

She didn't know what to think…..no she did. That this was never about Hopper. This was that monster trying one last time to get at her. It what way by showing her this she didn't know, but it wasn't real….couldn't be real. This was all in her head like what Kali had done last year...show her someone she should hate and want dead for what he did to her and her mother...but she didn't and just like Kali he was using that against her.

"Hopper," she breathed, the word shattering like glass so it came out small and broken, but a moment later she regained her voice and spoke louder looking right up at him now. "Where's Hopper?!"

"Hopper?" Billy laughed shocked at her words, "How f**king stupid are you?! Don't you understand that the person who made your life a living hell is alive and you're worried about some cop who only cared about your powers?!"

At his last word, she felt only one thing, pure anger. How dare he even say that, how dare he! Hopper had been the first grown-up she had ever felt truly safe way. The first grown-up to give her a safe place to live, the first grown-up to never care about her power. She felt no more fear or even sadness, just hatred. "This isn't real, all of this is in my head," El said, slowly walking towards him. "You wanted me to believe your lies so I would 'join' you and it would be so much easier to kill me or use my powers, but you made a big mistake using HOPPER TO DO IT!"

She shouted the last words and swung her arm out to the right, sending him flying into a wall so hard cracks spidered out from it.

Suddenly she was blinded with white light and a ringing in her ears but when her vision cleared she was back in Brimborn Steel Works Mill in the same place she had been standing when he had touched the side of her head. But there was one thing different. People circled her now all eye on her and him as Billy got back up, his eyes black holes.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. we're in the end game now tho there will be five or six-chapters after the next one tieing up loose ends and leading us to the moving day. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Stay safe everyone :D


	21. 21  Home

21

Home

El

El looked around herself as Billy stood from where he had been thrown into the wall. Heather, Mrs. and Mr. Holloway, Ms. Driscoll and so many others stood around her in the shadows that she lost count. Their eyes black as the night and veins matching. Billy moved then catching her eye and she was happy to see black blood dripping from his own nose now along with the black blood falling from his forehead and lips.

He didn't take his eyes from her as he walked to meet her back in the middle of the room, his breathing heavy, anger clear in his eyes as red lightning flashed from the skylight above them, lighting the room here and there. "I tried to help you, but you're too much of a child to understand the bigger picture and what you really could be, so now I have to kill you plain and simple," He hissed at her.

El looked to the side of the room where the stairs sat if she could get to the next floor she could- her thought was cut off suddenly as she felt arms go around her chest and the next thing she saw was the ground as she was thrown to the side.

El felt the breath knocked from her lungs leaving her to gasp on the cold hard floor as she lay on her side, pain running up and down her whole body.

When the stars cleared from her vision she saw that a middle-age man stood over her, his fist raised and as El looked up into his face she saw herself pale and small in the black pools of his eyes.

Before he brought down his fist she rolled to the side as he hit the ground instead of her and a second later she sent a handout, sending the unknown man backwards, but not even a second later he was replaced with someone else.

El got to her feet and backed away just as a piece of metal piping came down right where she had been. She moved quickly and found she was faced with a small army of people all of which was running right for her.

El sent out a burst of power out much as she had done for the demodogs that sent the ones that were close flying. But she felt hopelessness rise in her as more simply took their place. Suddenly she felt something hit her on the back of the head so hard she was sent stumbling back into a wall but she didn't let that stop her as she kept running.

She ran towards the staircase and made it almost halfway up and just saw the next floor when someone gripped the back of her shirt and pulled her backwards. She was slammed into another wall so hard she tasted blood in her mouth. She looked back up and found Heather standing over her, a chain in the other girl's hand, flying right at her face.

El put out a hand and closed her eyes waiting for the pain but it never came and went she reopened her eyes she found Heather had paused.

"I...I knew you?" Heather said with a look of confusion.

El started to nod, hoping that she had snapped out of his control but that hope died a moment later as Heather hissed in pain holding her head in her hands, but when she looked back up her eyes had turned black once more.

El put out a hand in hopes of pushing Heather back but the other girl had been ready and grabbed her hand and punched her right in the cheek sending El to the floor once more.

El tried to blink away the pain but it did nothing to help as she opened her eyes to see someone kneeling in front of her. She cried out as someone grabbed the back of her hair to make her look up and there she met the black pools of Billy's eyes.

"You could have been so much more if you would have given me your powers, but instead you're going to die here, alone, He started to smile as he went on, "But don't worry your friends will follow you soon, they can't keep as back forever."

Before she could think of a way out of this he wrapped his other hand around her neck and slowly started to get to his feet dragging her up with him as she started to gasp for breath.

She clawed at his hands but it did nothing to him as she started to see dark spots in her vision.

Fear gripped her for a moment as she longed for air wondering if this was really where she was going to die...and she didn't even get to say goodbye to her friends...and Mike...Mike would never know what happened to her here, the people she loved would never know, Max would- A thought came to her then just as she let out her last breath.

"Max."

For a long moment, she worried her voice hadn't been strong enough to be heard but then Billy loosened his grip.

"What did you just say?" He hissed at her.

El sucked it a deep breath before she spoke, "Max, you saved Max that night at the mall Billy, she's alive and okay but she wouldn't be if you don't fight one last time."

"God you're dumb," Billy said rolling his eyes at her before he started to tighten his grip again.

"You made a choice then do it again….please Billy," she said with scared tears in her eyes now.

"You really think that's going to work you can't… can't…"

El watched as his eyes flashed to a deep blue, suddenly he let go of her where she fell to the floor but quickly got back up onto her feet. She watched as his eyes flashed back and forth from blue to black and she knew she didn't have much time as he gripped the sides of his head, pain in his eyes as the real Billy fought, she needed to finally try her plan.

She reached out her arms and focused on all of the people who should never have even been here in the first place. Pain pounded through her head as slowly black ink started to drip from them.

She felt her own blood start to drip down her nose as the world started to spin around her and pools of black started to form on the floor, as their eyes started to turn back to what they had once been.

"Y..you will….never win…" Billy said through his teeth, black blood dripping from his mouth.

"Maybe, but I'll never give up, no matter what," El said as she tasted her own blood in her mouth.

"Your friends will die alongside you then," Billy said, "And you will lose everything." His eyes flashed black one last time before she let out a scream as the black ink poured out of them.

With a flash of red lightning above her, the last drops of blackness fell from their fingertips as she fell to her knees, exhausted.

She was barely able to raise her head, but when she did she saw the clear colorful eyes of the people standing around her, all looking very confused. For the first time, she took in just how many people had died to make the monster from this summer. There were even children, younger than she was herself. That's when she let the tears fall and drip from her cheeks, not scared, or fearful anymore just sad at what had happened to all of these people and so so tired.

"I'm so sorry," She croaked wiping at her tears, "This should have never happened to any of you, you all should be...be alive and be with your families who love you."

For a long painful moment, the air was filled with silence before someone spoke.

"Then you should."

She looked up and through her watery eyes, she saw Heather along with everyone else looking at her.

"You should go home and be with your family now," Heather said her eyes showing kindness before suddenly she started to turn to ash.

El watched as slowly the people…..no the shadows of the people they used to be, that were used to that monster's control started to turn ashen before they disappeared like flower petals on a breeze. That was besides one person. Billy.

El stood slowly, her head still spinning as Billy just stood there in the middle of the room. "Billy?"

He turned to look at her, his eyes a clear blue now. "How did you know you could reach me still?" He asked her, looking confused maybe not sure where he was now.

"That night you called me and said Max's name, it wasn't...It wasn't him. It was you I could tell."

He was quite a long, long moment before he swallowed and looked down and away from her, "I was never a good person to her, I was never a good person to anyone in life, I hurt people, I used people, I said some awful things to the people I cared about and now...now I wish I could go back."

"But you saved us that night," El said, "That last choice made a difference, that's what made you a good person in the end."

"Can one truly good action really make up for all the bad I've done?"

El didn't have an answer for that, because there didn't seem to be one. "I'm still so sorry," she said. "None of this should have happened.

"No it shouldn't have. But we don't blame you, none of this was done by you."

"But it happened because of me," She said gently.

"No, I saw what was in that monster's head when he was in my mind, my body. It was like a two-way mirror, I could see everything and this goes deeper than you. So don't let our ghosts haunt you, don't let that monster win, he can't use us anymore so don't let him use you next, that's what he wants."

El nodded understanding him. All of this had been to try and get to her, even what he had shown her before in that building was all a nightmare in her head.

"Just do me one last favor?" Billy asked and she saw he was starting to turn ashen.

"Yes."

"Just look after Max, keep her far away from my father."

El smiled softly as she remembered what she had already done to his father before she answered, "Of course."

With that, he disappeared into ash and she watched as it mixed into the other white dust that floated all around her, just like everyone else had to leave her by herself. El sucked in a deep breath as if a heavyweight had been lifted off her shoulder at that moment, relief washing over her.

Finally, she closed her eyes feeling safe doing so for the first time since before July 4th.

The next thing El knew was gasping awake and opened her eyes to darkness and an unfamiliar cold, so cold place but before she could start to panic she felt warm arms wrap around her. A warmth she knew all too well now. Mike.

She looked up as her eyes met his. "Mike?"

"Hey, hey I'm here," he said gently moving a piece of her hair out of her face and behind her ear.

"W-where are we?"

"That's a long story," Mike said as he started to help her up to her feet and she saw they were in a freezer, it really was a long story then becouse the last thing she recalled was being in the Byers house.

The sound of running footsteps made them both look up to see Dustin.

"Um Mike all the killer fog people just turned to water out of nowhere and Steve looked outside and the fog is gone and everyone seems to be waking up so we need to…." He paused when he saw both of them. "El you're awake!"

Suddenly she was engulfed in a hug, a smile spreading across her face.

"Um guys hate to break this touching moment up but we need to go."

They looked up to see Steve standing in the doorway and behind him the sound of someone's very angry yelling.

Without saying another word Mike took her hand and together with Dustin and Steve they ran out of the freezer and passed three people just waking up all looking very out of it and confused.

They joined the others in the main dining room to find a very angry man yelling at Jonathan and everyone else behind him.

"What the hell happened to my door and who are you people!?"

"That's a very good question," Jonathan said his hands up trying to calm the other man down. That was until he looked to the side and saw them. "That I will not be answering today."

Everyone made a break for the door then. The next thing El knew she was in a car, Mike next to her as she rested her head on his shoulder as they sped away, driving back towards the Byers house. She looked out the window and saw the sunset once again.

"What happened to you while you were asleep?" Mike asked her softly his hand laced with hers.

"That's a long story."

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. This was the big ending to the ghost story, but the story as a whole isn't done just yet. I'm going to have about six more chapters to bring us to the big moving day and a little seek peek to season 4 ;) Stay safe everyone :D


	22. 22  The Funeral

22

The Funeral

El

August 2th

El stood in front of a mirror looking at herself in the same black dress she had worn at Billy's funeral, which seemed so far away now.

She let out a breath as she played with the blue bracelet on her wrist that Hopper had given her so long ago now, not sure what to feel about today. It didn't seem real to her even now that Hopper was really gone. Gone forever. That he wouldn't be there if she needed him, that they wouldn't get to watch his favorite show Magnum P.I or have more games nights.

She heard the door open then and when she turned to see who it was she found Joyce standing in the doorway of her own bedroom, dressed in black as well. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," El said and joined her in the doorway, without saying a word the older women reached out and wrapped El in her arms. They stayed like that for a long, long time not saying a word, both feeling too much grief to really say anything, both knowing that no words could really make them feel better today, all they could really do now was to work through it. Finally, they pulled away and walked into the hallway Joyce holding on to her hand giving her comfort without saying a word, the heels Joyce wore making the only sound in the whole house.

Click

Click

Click

Click

They found Jonathan and Will both standing in the living room, both in black suits and ties. They both looked like they hadn't slept the night before just like herself.

Jonathan opened the door for them then and she walked outside into a far too bright day for what they had to do. A line of cars waited for them, it looked as if the whole town had turned out for Hopper's Funeral, a hearse in the back of the line made her stop a moment, all of this really was happening, this wasn't a nightmare.

She was snapped back to reality as someone put a gentle hand on her back moving her forward. They all made their way to the car and get in and pulled out to join everyone else.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Driving through the too quiet town and to the graveyard, parking in the long line of cars and making their way to stand in line as an empty casket was walked down the middle of the aisle.

She stood in the front next to Joyce, Will and Jonathan, the only thing he had close to family. She looked across the row over to see Mike, Nancy, and his parents. She found Mike's eyes on her. She looked away a burning pain behind her eyes as a man that she had heard Jonathan call a priest spoke.

She didn't really understand the words he was saying, stuff about a happy place people went and that Hopper was there now with Sara, and they would always be happy there. She knew they were meant to be comforting, though she didn't really feel it. No….she wasn't comforted but there was a feeling of…letting go in some way.

"Now would anyone like to come up and say some kind words?"

Joyce stood from her chair then and moved to take the older man's place, a folded piece of paper in her shaking hand and El saw just how small she looked up there.

For a long moment no one spoke or moved as Joyce hesitated for a second biting her lip before she started speaking.

"We all knew James Hopper, or Jim as he liked to go by, but we all met him in different ways. I first met him in 1958. We were both 16 in high school at the time. I have to say I never noticed him really before then, I know we were both in a lot of the same classes, I had talked with him here and there but it wasn't until a warm August day much like today when we really talked and i like to think became friends. I was skipping lunch that day because I wanted a cigarette. I went to my car and grabbed my pack only to find that it had been empty. I remember slamming my car door shut and throwing the pack on the ground like a child," She paused a second to smile at the memory before she went on. "I had turned my back on it pouting when I heard someone pick it up and when I looked back Jim was there, the empty pack in his hand and he was wearing a smartass smirk.

"You know your lucky no cops are around here to see you littering, you could have been fined you know."

"Thanks," Joyce said, grabbing it from him and throwing it through the car window that was half rolled down.

"If you want a cigarette all you have to do is ask," he said, holding up his own pack and a lighter. He sat on the old red truck that sat next to her own car and lit one before taking a long drag of it, letting out a breath of smoke. He patted the hood for her to come and join him. Joyce rolled her eyes but sat next to him all the same, he passed her a cigarette and flicked on the lighter, she held it over the flam before inhaling.

"So you still fighting with Lonnie?"

"Why do you think I'm hiding out here," Joyce answered.

"You know you don't have to stay with him, he's a real asshole and if you think he's going to grow out of it your wrong," Jim said, letting out another breath of smoke.

"You don't know him like I do," Joyce said, "he's a good guy."

"Sure I good guy that uses racist slurs and calls that poor kid Bob Newby a queer."

"He'll change," Joyce said, but even she knew she wasn't so sure of that.

"You Know," Jim said, putting out the butt of the cigarette on one of the rusty spots on the truck, "You can always call me if you need someone to come over and kick his ass."

"Sure," Joyce said rolling her eyes once again.

"Hey now, I want to be a cop after all I could take him."

"Yeah and I'm going to be a detective."

Jim smiled as he hopped off the hood and turned to look at her. "You need something in your back pocket if all else fails," he handed her a piece of paper with his number on it then, "Same with friends," he said walking away from her.

Joyce looked down at it for a long moment before she slipped it into her back pocket with a little smile.

"I wish I could remember what we had talked about that day, but I can't. But I do remember the feeling of talking with him. He was someone who could make you feel like everything was going to be okay, make you forget what time it was when you started talking to him and it really felt like he cared about your problems even if he didn't know you all that well, he would listen to you and understand everything somehow. Sure he wasn't always very good with words and he was stubborn, so damned stubborn. But you knew in his heart he only wanted the best for you. To protect you, to make you feel safe. Be it just talking with you when you needed it the most, letting you win at cards, taking your anger out on him, or giving you a cigarette when you needed it. He was a good Boss, a best friend, a father figure, a hero and I will always love him..." She paused a moment before going on, "I just wish I had told him sooner."

Once again everything was quiet, so, so quiet as Joyce stood there looking down at her paper, her eyes watering before she hurriedly stepped down to rejoin them as Officer Powell took her place.

El looked up and saw the tears running down the older woman's face matching her own. She reached over and took her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze and she held her hand until they had lowered his casket down into the ground before covering it.

After that everything happened in a blur and the next thing she knew was sitting on the couch at the Wheelers. She jumped as someone touched her hand.

"Hey it's just me," Mike said sitting down next to her and handed her a cup of something. When she took a sip of it she found it was tea.

"You know how to make tea?" She asked him surprised. "He gave her a soft smile, "It was just the bag kind but my mom said that tea can make you feel better or something like that."

"Thank you," she said, taking another sip before simply holding it, letting it warm her hands.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her, "After everything."

She looked down and found her reflection looking back at her from her glass. "I'm fine, but they're still not back. My powers."

"And do you remember anything from that place yet?" He asked.

"No, it's like...like a dream one you forget after you wake up. I can't remember a thing of what I saw or even said now," El said, the disappointment in herself clear.

"It's okay, you don't have to remember anything, it's all over now, I mean you haven't seen anyone since that night right?" Mike asked.

"No, I haven't seen anyone or even had that nightmare again...But there something there. Like there was something important I need to remember."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Mike said, lacing his fingers with hers, "All that matters now is that you're okay and safe, we're all safe."

She felt her lips turn up in a small smile at his words, with a breath she sat back and laid her head on his shoulder as she closed her eyes, soaking in his comfort. Feeling as if everything had changed now, but he was right. Everyone was safe now. She opened her eyes a moment at a sudden pain on her arm and saw that her sleeve had moved up to show a long cut that she didn't remember getting. She pulled it back down before resting her head on his shoulder once again.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. Only four more chapters now. Stay safe everyone :D


	23. 23  The letter.

23

The letter.

August 19th

Max

"I can't believe we're really doing this," Max said looking over at her mother where she stood next to the washing machine, but the older woman said nothing simply taping up the boxes. Boxes of his things, Neil's. After what felt like forever her mom had finally gotten a restraining order and the house back in her name fully and they were kicking him out today.

"Hey what do I do with this?"

Max looked over to see her boyfriend holding up a pair of socks.

She rolled her eyes as she went over to him and grabbed them from his hand. "Those are my dummy."

"Your feet are that big?" Lucas asked.

Max narrowed her eyes at him, and in that moment he knew he messed up because not a second later she hit him with the socks a few times. Not hard but still he got the point.

He put his hands up in defeat, "okay, okay I'm sorry."

"Go pack up more boxes," Max said.

"Fine, I'm going," Lucas said, but he was smiling and so was she.

"Honey, would you go check on your other friends and see how they're doing?" Her mom asked her, "And please thank them again for doing this, they didn't have too."

She nodded and went into the living room to find Mike, Dustin, and Will all doing something, packing up t-shirts and jeans in boxes, his old books, and other small things like that. "Thank you guys for doing this, I know it's kinda weird," Max said.

"It's fine," Will said looking up at her, "It's giving us practice for next month."

Max nodded, "And I'll be helping you then."

"Yeah then it's your turn to move the books," Dustin said as he threw another book into a box.

"Fine by me," Max said with a little smile but it fell as she looked around and found El missing from the group.

"Where's El?"

"Oh she went looking for more boxes a few minutes ago," Mike answered pointing to the hallway before he went back to trying to find the end of the tape gun.

Max turned towards the hall and started down it looking into the hall closet next to her room where the boxes were but El wasn't there and she wasn't in her room or the bathroom. Meaning there was only one room left. Billy's.

She bit her lip before walking down to the last room and looked in to find she had been right. El sat on the bed looking at a piece of paper.

"What are you reading?" Max asked, coming into the room.

El jumped and looked up at her with wide eyes.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Max said sitting down next to her, "What is that?"

"I found it on that bookshelf the last time I was here," El said, handing it to her, "It's from his mom this spring."

Max took it surprised, she didn't know that his mom even knew where he lived. As she read it over her heart sunk at the meaning, his mother had wanted him to come find her and move back to California. "He could have left anytime he wanted," Max said, her voice almost a whisper as she looked at the money on the bed.

"But he didn't," El said.

Max got up from the bed to walk around the room confused.

"Why would he stay here, he hated it here with his dad and my mom and he hated me since the day we met."

"But he didn't hate you," El said, " You were his little sister."

Max paused in her pasting and let out a breath. "Do...do you think he stayed because of me?" Max said facing her, "And don't lie just to make me feel better."

"Friends don't lie," El answered, "He knew what kind of person his father was and maybe he knew what would happen if he left you here on your own…"

Max nodded, knowing she was right, and that Billy had been right too, Neil was simply a bad person who only knew to hurt the ones he loved when they do what he said.

They were both quite a moment before El spoke. "Does his mother know? I didn't see her at his funeral."

"My mom looked for her address but we couldn't find her and Neil didn't even want her there," Max said looking down at the letter, at the address.

"We need to tell her," El said and Max nodded slowly.

"I-i can write a letter," Max said, but even she could tell her voice sounded unsure.

El stood and came over to her and took her hand, "We can write it together."

"You don't have too," Max said.

"He's the reason I'm alive right now," El said, "Of course I want to."

Max nodded, as they both went to sit back on her bed. "Where do we start?" Max asked, grabbing a piece of paper and two pens.

"Let's start at the beginning," El said, "Maybe that night."

Max let out a breath before she began to write, every now and then she would let El look at it and add something if she thought it needed it. She didn't know how long they were writing it, just that when she finally looked up at the clock it was after one a clock.

"We need to get it out in the mail but look it over for me one last time," Max said, handing El the letter.

El took it and started to read.

Dear Mrs. Hargrove, we are writing to you to tell you about your son Billy. On the 4th of July this year, he passed away in a fire at the star court mall. I and my mom have been trying to reach you but we couldn't find an address until now. We wanted to let you know before the funeral but we couldn't. He died a hero that night saving people and he will be missed by everyone he knew here. We did want to let you know that he had kept your letter to him from this spring and that's how we found your address, he loved you very much.

"It sounds very grown-up," El said, handing it back to Max.

"It has to be," Max said as she got off her bed and went over to her desk and pulled out an envelope. She folded the letter and put it into the envelope.

They were both quiet as she wrote the address. "What are you planning to do with his room? " El asked finally.

Max closed the envelope as she turned back to El and answered. "We're keeping it the same. My mom actually wanted to have a yard sale for his stuff but I asked her not to because…" She trailed off a moment as she sat back on the bed looking down at the envelope.

"Because you still miss him?" El said.

Max nodded, "I come in here when I need to remember him, at times it feels like he's going to walk through the door and yell at me for being in his room but then he doesn't and I've started coming in here more and more when I feel sad or upset like it's a comfort blanket."

"That's not a bad thing," El said, "I have a long sleeve shirt of Hoppers I keep around so when I miss him in the middle of the night I have something to hold on to."

Max looked up at the other girl both of them having lost someone and didn't know how to deal with that.

El reached over and took her hand, "Mrs. Byers told me it's okay to hurt, for the people you miss, it's better to let it hurt then to hide it."

Max hurriedly wiped away her tears as she nodded before she hopped off the bed again. "Come on let's go put this out in the mail.

El hopped off the bed as well and joined her.

They ran down the hall and into the living room where the boys were still packing up but looked to be almost done.

"There you are," Lucas said, "Finally came back to help?"

"We'll be right back," Max called over her shoulder to him as they opened the door and went outside closing it behind themselves.

The boys looked after them a minute before Lucas shook his head, "Girls."

"Girls, " Mike and Will agreed before going back to work.

"Do you think she'll come down here? El asked.

"Maybe," Max said, closing the mailbox.

"She loved him a lot but why would she just leave him with his father?" El asked as they walked back up the driveway.

"Fear of his father," Max said simply.

"I'm happy he's away from you and your mother," El said, "I think Billy would be too."

Max paused her hand on the handle of the door. "I think he would be too," Max said before she pushed open the door to a new kind of life, one she didn't know how to live in yet, but one where she still had her friends with her and that made it better, earlier to go on with it.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. Only three more chapters now. Stay safe everyone :D


	24. 24  The bike

24

The bike

September 7th

El

El followed after Mike, unsure where they were going or even what they were doing today. It was one of the warmer September days, though the feeling of Autumn was starting to creep into the air, with chilling breezes that made her hair blow around her face as they walked down the street.

It was almost three months after, the mall... after Hopper's death. They would be moving soon so El was used to spending all day with Mike as they tried to make the last few days they had to feel longer but so far it hadn't, it was the opposite. Every minute felt like a second with him and before she knew it the sun was going down and she had to go back to the Byer's when all she wanted was to stay with Mike and her friends.

Normally he would tell her what they were doing, be it going somewhere with their friends or just them going to watch a movie. But today he hadn't told her a thing, simply grabbed her hand which he hadn't let go of this morning, said hi to Will with a knowing look and told Joyce they would be back later on today.

"Mike where are we going?" she asked again.

"You'll see in a minute," he said simply as he opened an old wooden gate for them, before walking down a paved sidewalk. She looked around herself to find what looked to be a hidden garden. With flowers growing around the sidewalk, a bench here and there, large trees all around, covering them with shade, as birds sang in the trees.

He pulled her through a clearing and a moment later she felt her eyes go wide with surprise.

They had stepped past a group of bushes to find a large paved courtyard. A pink bike sitting in the middle.

Mike let go of her hand and walked over to it with a bright smile. She followed after him a little slower unsure what this was.

"Do you like the color?" He asked as she came over.

It was the color of Cherry Blossoms. Teal tassels hung from the white handles, a little bell on the right side and in the middle, a basket sat with a fake daisy gleaming in the sunlight.

"It's pretty but why is it here?" El asked confused.

"Well... you're going to be moving soon so you won't be able to ride on the back of my bike anymore so I asked Nancy if I could have her old bike, then me, Dustin and Lucas fixed it up and Max picked out the accessories and Will painted it, and I wanted to show you how to ride one by yourself."

El felt her mouth open a little in surprise, her heart-melting. She had the best friends she could ever have asked for and the best boyfriend.

"Mike….I - I don't know how to thank you and everyone."

"You don't have to," Mike answered simply as he went over to the basket and pulled out a red helmet and handed it to her.

El couldn't help smiling a little and put on the helmet but couldn't figure out for the sharps. Without a word Mike came over and did it for her, his fingers tightening it easily.

After they both stood there a moment, their eyes met, and before she knew what was happening their lips met in a warm kiss. It was soft and sweet, but Mike pulled away after a long second and pulled her towards the bike. "Come on, I'm here to teach you how to ride a bike, not make out... Though that's a plus."

El couldn't help a little disappointment but went over to the bike all the same. Mike held it for her a moment as she swung her leg up and over to sit in front of what she realized was the first time.

"Okay start pedaling. Start with one foot on the ground. Your other foot should be flat on a pedal pointed upwards, Mike said standing right next to her, and she knew if she started to fall he would catch her, just like he always did.

She pushed herself with her feet until the bike started to move on the flat pavement before she tucked her feet onto the pedals and started pedaling. She wasn't going to lie, it was hard, trying to maintain her balance and keep moving but after a few minutes off she went.

Mike stood in the middle of the courtyard with the biggest smile on his face as he watched her, "Keep going as long as you can!" He shouted to her excitedly.

She started going faster and that seemed to make balancing easier, she was thankful that she had worn the helmet, it kept the hair out of her face and honestly made her feel better….Hopper would probably feel better too…

She looked up and started to go in circles around Mike, both wearing bright smiles, both knowing days like this were limited now but still she wouldn't think of that not here and now because she would always have Mike even if he wasn't always at her side.

"You're doing amazing!" Mike shouted to her, "Faster than Dustin!"

She laughed knowing Dustin could ride laps around her in truth. She let out a breath and wanted to stop riding but found out at that moment she was unsure how.

"Um Mike how do I stop?" she asked and saw his eyes go wide realizing his mistake.

"Um just hit the brake but you need to-"

She hadn't let him finish what he was saying when she squeezed the handbrakes and the bike stopped suddenly, sending her and the bike falling over.

The next thing she knew was the hard impact on the concrete. Mike was next to her in seconds, sorry in his eyes. "Are you Okay El?"

She looked up at him a moment, the sun forming a halo around his black curls making him look unreal. She reached up and took his hand, pulling him down to lay on the warm concrete next to her.

She guided his lips to her own with a hand on the back of his neck and they kissed for a long moment as the world came to a stop for them. This is what she would miss the most as the world seemed to stop for both of them, him. Not that she wouldn't miss the others. But he had been the first person to ever show her kindness, to show her what it was like to be given something and not be asked to use her powers for it, beloved without wanting anything from her.

After another, second or maybe it was minutes, she didn't know, they pulled away from one another and simply laid next to each other. Their fingers laced together as they listened to the world pass them by, the birds flying overhead, people and cars passing their hiding place none the wiser to them, the blue sky starting to turn yellow mixed with a light pink you could barely see as the sun went down.

"El do you know how much i will miss you? " Mike asked, turning to look at her.

"No more then I'll miss you," El answered, meeting his eyes, "I'll miss you ten times more."

Mike let out a breathy laugh, "I'll miss you a million times more."

"That's not fair," she said before she leaned over and kissed his cheek before she pulled away, her heart aching. It must have shown because Mike's eyes softened. "You know I'll call you every night….and morning if you want. Hell, I'll call in the afternoon too."

"You promise?" El asked.

"Oh, I promise, you'll probably be sick of me before thanksgiving."

She couldn't help but smile at him as she sat up. The sky was now turning a deep yellow, orange following after it as the sun disappeared behind the tree line.

"I think it's time that I get you home," Mike said standing up and offered his hand to her. She took it and stood with him. She picked up her bike and Mike held the gate open for her. Together they walked home, hand in hand, a pink bike in the middle of them.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. Only two more chapters now. Stay safe everyone :D


	25. Finding Home Chapter 25

25

Finding Home Again

September 23th

El

El looked out the window as they drove. The sun high in the sky now as the afternoon hit.

Iowa wasn't much to see but maybe that's why Mrs Byers had picked it, it kinda looked like Hawkins but wasn't, it didn't hold the same memories, didn't share the same horrors. Just the same never ending fields, diners and shops, everything feeling small.

"Are you excited to see the new house?" Joyce asked looking over at her from where she sat in the passenger seat.

"Yeah," El said, looking over at her with a smile, "But why didn't you want the boys to come with?"

"I thought it would be good to have a girls trip," Joyce answered.

"Oh," was all El said as she watched more of the world pass them by. After a few minutes of silence the older woman reached over and turned on the radio and the song Walking on Sunshine ran through the car.

"Oh I love this song," Joyce said and turned up the volume and to El's surprise started singing along.

"Now every time I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down

'Cause I just can't wait 'til you write me you're coming around

I'm walking on sunshine!

I'm walking on sunshine!

I'm walking on sunshine!"

El couldn't help a smile and she knew that's what Mrs. Byers had been after and it had worked, her mood had been lifted, it was just hard given how everything seemed to be setting in now, a new house...meant a new life.

Suddenly they turned onto another street and into a neighborhood. El looked out the window at the houses that would be their neighbors.

They looked quite different from their home now, a lot like Mike's neighborhood with houses that had two stories, green lawns and gardens in front of the windows with colorful flowers. A large park sat on the other side of the houses with families playing with their kids. Everything seemed like it was out of a movie, unreal with how picture perfect it looked.

"What do you think so far?" Joyce asked her.

"It's different," El said as they pulled into a driveway.

They both got out and as El closed her door she found their new home.

It was a two-story house, the outside a light gray color with white outlining it and also had the same green lawn and flower beds as the others.

"Come on let's check out the inside," Joyce said going up to the white front door, keys in hand.

El followed after her as Mrs. Byers unlocked the door and opened it for them.

"You first," Joyce said, holding the door open for her. El went in and felt her eyes go wide.

The living room was bigger than Hoppers whole cabin put together. She stepped further in and found the floor was dark wood and the wallpaper a light green. There was even a fireplace at the end of the room.

"It's so big," El said looking around herself.

"I know, I almost thought it was too big of a house. But the guy I talked to at the government said I could pick anyone I wanted and they're the ones paying after all and we'll have lots of room for when everyone comes to visit."

El nodded as she walked around more and as she stepped around a corner she found the kitchen next, Joyce right behind her.

Again it was something out of a tv show with how large it was. The wallpaper was a bright yellow, the counters a cream white and the flooring white title.

"We finally have a big enough kitchen to have everyone over for thanksgiving," Joyce said looking around herself.

"Everyone's going to be coming over for Thanksgiving?" El asked.

Mrs Byers nodded, "Me and Mrs Wheeler have already talked about it Mike and everyone are coming for Thanksgiving and to stay over around Christmas break."

El smiled then at the thought of her friends coming here, she knew they would be apart but not forever.

"Hey do you want to be the first one to pick your bedroom," Joyce asked.

El's eyes lit up at her question, " Can I really?"

"Hell yeah you can, " Joyce said.

El looked towards the staircase in the living room a moment before she took off up them, Mrs Byers smiling after her.

El reached the second floor and saw there were four doors. She went over to the first one and pushed it open. She found a middle-sized room with light blue wallpaper and wooden floors. She went over to the window and opened it to see the green backyard, a fence lining the yard. El closed them, this room felt more like Wills.

She went to the next and found it was the same size but it was a deep blue, again it didn't seem like her, she closed the door and turned for the next one.

This time when she opened the door she found the perfect room, at least to her it was. This one was a little smaller but that didn't bother her, it actually reminded her of the cabin. The walls in this one was a soft purple, there was room for everything that had been in her old bedroom if not more, she could even have a bookshelf now.

"You like this one?"

El turned and found Mrs Byers standing in the doorway watching her with a small smile.

"Yeah," El said, " I really like the color."

"Me too," Mrs Byers said, coming into the room further, looking around before she looked back at El and let out a breath. "I know this house doesn't really feel like a home yet, I know it's new and empty and not anything like we've had before, but it's a new start for all of us away from Hawkins, away from the lab, away from the ghosts, away from the bad memories."

El looked down but knew she was right, Hawkins was the only place she had ever known and for 12 years it had been only bad things.

"I'm excited to move here," El said finally and it was true, "I'm excited to see what comes next."

Mrs. Byers gave her a happy smile before she spoke, "Come here I want to do something."

El followed after her back into the hallway and over to a bathroom door.

"Stand in front of the door frame," Mrs. Byers said, taking out a black marker from her bag.

El wondered what she wanted to do but did as she was told anyway and stepped in front of the white door frame.

Mrs Byers moved to stand in front of her and El heard the sounds of the marker over her head, after a moment the older women stepped back.

"There now it's starting to look more like a home than just a house."

El turned to look at what she meant and saw a line in the white wood, her age, and name next to it. "What's that for?" El asked.

"It's to mark how tall you are right now so in a few months we can look back and see how much taller you've gotten," Joyce answered.

El smiled at it wondering how much taller she would get.

"I've got one more surprise for you," Joyce said, "But we have to go somewhere to see it."

El looked up at her confused, what else was there?

She followed Joyce down the stairs and out to the car before they got back in and started to drive somewhere else. But she didn't have to wonder long as they pulled into the parking lot of a pet shop.

El felt her eyes got wide with excitement as she looked to Mrs. Byers and found the other woman already looking at her with a smile.

"Well, what are you waiting for? let's go in."

She didn't have to be told twice as she opened the door and basically ran into the store, Mrs. Byers having to jog after her.

A bell rang out as she pushed open the door and was met with a smiling older man.

"How can I help you today?" He asked as Joyce followed after El. "We're just looking today," she answered.

El went over to each cage looking into see the cat or dog inside. They were all cute but there was one that stood out to her the second she met their eyes. It was a white cat, almost the twin of the one she had been asked to kill so long ago now, but the eyes were different. One yellow, one a light blue.

"What's her name?" El asked, turning to look at the man.

"Oh that's Daisy, she's a sweetheart but her eyes scare a lot of people off I'm afraid."

El looked at the cat once more before looking up at Mrs. Byers. "Can we get her?"

" Well I wanted to wait until the boys were here to all agree on one… " she looked back at the store owner. "Can we put her on hold? We're moving here in a few weeks."

"Sure it's a small fine though."

"That's fine," Joyce said watching as El put a finger in the cage. Daisy smelled it a second before she rubbed her face against it happily. The sound of purring filling the quiet.

Joyce went over and signed a few papers before she and El hopped back in the car to start their long drive back.

El watched as the world passed her in a blur once more. She knew that this move was going to hurt, hurt a lot. Hurt leaving her only friends behind besides Will. Hurt at leaving the only home she had ever known. But maybe, just maybe she would be able to call this place home too.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. Only one more chapter now. Stay safe everyone :D


	26. 26  The Ending

26

The Ending

October 3rd

El

"Are you almost ready?" Max asked standing next to the bathroom door. A moment later El opened the door and stepped out.

"Is this good to go camping in?" El asked.

"Yeah that's perfect," Max said as El turned back to the mirror for one last look. She wore light-colored jeans and a simple red t-shirt, a blue plaid coat tied around her waist for if it got cold.

"Let's go, Everyone is at the drop, I think they already have the tents up and everything," Max said as they made their way through the Byers' almost empty house.

They had been packing for almost the whole week and today was the last day they would be here, tomorrow afternoon they would pack the last few things before they would leave so Mrs. Byers had suggested having a camp out with all their friends and it was the perfect day too, not only becouse it would give them all time together, but as she and Max stepped outside they found it was one of the last warmer days in the year.

Autumn had started to seep into everything, but not today. The sun showed down on them as they made their way down the path that would lead them to the bottom of the drop where they would be camping.

It wasn't a long walk maybe ten minutes in whole, but there was something in her that wanted to walk slower today, maybe that would make time go slower.

"So you packed all the wonder woman comics right?" Max asked her.

"Yeah, I even have them in order so I can just pull them out and start reading when I get there," El answered, "Along with the X-Men ones Dustin and Lucas gave me and The Avengers ones from Mike."

"Jesus, you're never going to run out of stuff to read,'' Max said as they reached the lake that was known as the drop.

El opened her mouth to answer but jumped as Max let out a scream as someone grabbed her around the waist. El turned around her heart racing only to see it was Lucas.

"Surprise!"

Max pushed away from Lucas and started to run after him as he took off, laughing as he did. "I'm going to get you!" Max shouted after him leaving her alone, but not for long.

"There you are," someone said from behind her but she knew instantly who it was as they took her hand gently. She looked up and found Mike walking next to her as they made their way over to the tents where the others were, a boom box playing some pop song.

"Was Lucas just waiting there the whole time for Max?" El asked as they watched Max still running after him.

"Yeah after we did the tents he disappeared," Mike answered.

Max finally stopped running after Lucas as they all reached the tents then and found everyone. Mrs. Byers sat in a fold-out chair next to a cooler full of drinks and food.

Dustin and Will sat next to the edge of the water on a large rock. Nancy and Jonathan sat together next to one of the tent, reading together.

"Hey guys, come over here and watch what Will can do," Dustin said.

El and Mike walked over to them, the water a clear blue from the sunny day.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"Will can skip a rock like 15 times in a row."

"No way," Mike said, "15 times in a row, that's not possible."

"No it's true he did it," Lucas said as he and Max came over to join them.

"It's nothing that cool," Will said sheepishly.

"Show them," Dustin said.

Will shook his head but grabbed a rock and stood before he threw it.

They had been right it skipped probably over ten times.

"How did you do that? " El asked, she had never seen anyone skip a rock before.

"It's easy," Will said and handed her a smooth rock, "Hold it with your thumb and middle finger, then firmly hook your index finger along the edge. Your thumb goes on the top of the stone, not around the edge, then lower your hand and throw out and down at the same time."

El did as she was told and threw just like he said. It didn't go as far as his but it went a good ways off.

"I want to try that," Lucas said, and grabbed a rock.

"Me too," Mike said and before anyone knew it they were all throwing rocks into the cool water, the sun shining high above them as an hour ticked by.

"Damn it," Lucas said as his rock did nothing but one jump, "How did you do it again Will?"

"Oh, I just-" Will started but he was cut off as Max pushed Lucas into the water.

"Surprise," Max shouted at him as he popped back up from under the water.

"What the hell," Lucas said, wiping the water from his eyes and face.

"I told you I would get you," Max said smiling.

Lucas narrowed his eyes at her a moment but smiled too as he started to walk back over to them...right over to Max.

El and Mike could tell what he was planning to do but Max didn't seem to see it coming until it was too late.

Before Max knew what was happening Lucas grabbed her hand and pulled her into the water, but what no one saw was Max grab on to Dustin's shoulder meaning he was pulled in too.

El covered her mouth, but couldn't hide her smile and needer could Will and Mike.

"Why are you smiling at my pain," Dustin asked, throwing his now soaking hat and shoes onto the warm rocks, and before anyone could stop him he reached for the closest person to him which was Will and pulled him in next.

Suddenly everyone was in the water leaving only her and Mike standing.

"Jump in! " Max shouted to them as she and Lucas started swimming in the deeper part of the lake, "Don't make sure get up too."

"Ready?" Mike asked, looking over at her.

"Ready," El answered a moment before she made a running jump into the water alongside their friends.

She hit the cool water and was in a world of greenish looking water, a world nothing like the one above them but just like the real world she couldn't stay there for much longer.

She swam up and broke the surface, Mike right next to her. She looked over at him and smiled. "You look like Daniel LaRusso with your hair all wet. "

"Who's that?" Mike asked, moving his wet hair out of his face.

"He's The Karate Kid from Max's magazine," El answered as Mike smiled at her.

"Hey, Mike race you to the other end of the lake!" Dustin called over to him.

"Oh your on," Mike said as he started to swim over to where the other boys were.

"Guys are so dumb," Max said swimming over to her.

"Come on let's just swim around," El said as they watched as the boys lined up at the edge of the water.

"Are you sure? Max asked, "We could probably beat all of them."

"You really think so?" El asked looking over at her.

"Only one way to find out," Max said as she started swimming towards them, El following right after her.

The both of them swam as fast as they could and to her surprise, they got in front of the boys.

"Hey that's not fair," Dustin called out to them and Max only laughed.

El looked back and saw she was ahead of the others, that was beside one other person. Mike. He was right behind her. She put on a burst of speed on, but in a manner of moment's he was next to her, but she didn't look back again, only kept her eyes on one of the bigger rocks on the edge.

She reached her arm out and touched the rock just as Mike did the same.

She sucked in a breath as she looked over at him. "Who won?" She asked.

"You," Mike said, "You reached the rock first."

"Actually I would say it was a tie," Dustin said as the others reached them.

"Guess there's only one way to tell now," Max said, "We swim back to the other side."

El looked back over to Mike with a smile and without a word they started swimming back.

They stayed in the water until the sun had started to go behind the tree line, the sky alight with a deep orange and red and the air laced with a cold breeze.

"Alright guys time to get out and warm up," Mrs. Byers called to them.

They all swam over to the edge and got out, the feeling of the sudden cold air made them all run to the warmth of the campfire Jonathan and Nancy had made in the fire pit.

"You guys must be freezing," Nancy said from where she sat curled up in Jonathan's arms.

"Good thing I went back up to the house and got you all a change of clothing," Mrs. Byers said, handing them out.

El took them gratefully and followed Max into their tent and changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants.

They stepped back out and found the boy's already sitting by the fire. She went over and sat next to Mike, resting her head on his shoulder.

"So who's ready for dinner," Mrs. Byers said and opened the cooler pulling out a pack of hotdogs and some roasting sticks, along with a bag of marshmallows.

"Hell yeah, s'mores," Dustin said as he was passed a roasting stick and hot dog.

"What's a s'mores?" El asked as Mike handed her a roasting stick, a hot dog already on the end as she placed it over the fire.

"You've really never had a s'mores?" Max said shocked, "That's got to be a crime right?"

"I'll make you one," Mike said reaching for the bag of marshmallows and the box of cracker things and chocolate.

She watched as Mike placed a marshmallow on the end of his stick and placed it over the fire.

"You're going to burn it right?" Max asked.

"That's disgusting," Mike answered.

"No that's the only way to eat one, right?" She asked looking around but no one said anything so she looked over at her boyfriend, "Right?"

"I don't want to die in the middle of the night so I'm going to say yes."

"Thanks," Max said sarcastically.

"Here you go," Mike said, placing the now browned marshmallow into one of the crackers along with some chocolate on top before handing it to her.

She took it from him and took a bite and found it was sweet. Like super sweet.

"What do you think?"

"It's amazing," El said, and took another bite.

After everyone filled up on hotdogs and s'mores the all sat watching the fire crack and pop as Jonathan added some wood to it every now and then, the boombox playing a song she didn't know the name of.

"It's my own design, it's my own remorse

Help me to decide, help me make the most

Of freedom and of pleasure

Nothing ever lasts forever"

"Alright everyone," Mrs Byers said turning off the radio, "It's going to be a long day tomorrow so it's bedtime."

El wouldn't lie she was happy to go to bed early, after everything today she tired and by the looks of it everyone was too.

El pulled away from Mike before she got up and followed Max into their tent.

She got in her sleeping bag alone side Max but to her surprise, she didn't fall asleep, instead, she seemed to just lay there unable to close her eyes.

Finally, after what felt like forever, she stood and as quietly as she could make her way back outside unsure what she would do when she went out but to her surprise, someone else sat by the dying fire.

"Will?" El asked as she made her way over to him.

He looked up at her surprised, "Did I wake you up?" he asked.

"No, I couldn't sleep," El said as she sat down next to him.

"Couldn't sleep too?" Will asked.

"Yeah," El asked grabbing a stick and started to poke at the fire with him, little sparks flying up.

"You know I've never left Hawkins before now, " Will said, "it's going to be weird not going to school with everyone I know, without Dustin's jokes, Lucas being sarcastic, and Mike...being Mike."

"I know," El said, her eyes downcasted.

"But...I think we'll be okay, we'll be away from the pain this place has left us with," Will said looking over at her.

She bit her lip but he was right, they both had been hurt here. "I just...I just wish we didn't have to leave our friends."

"But we'll see them again," Will said.

"But it feels like an ending, like everything is ending," El said

They were quite a moment before Will spoke again. "All things end, but then we just start new chapters, that doesn't mean the characters have to change, you just add more like in The Lord of the rings."

El couldn't help a smile at that and hoped he was right. But her heart still hurt… "Will I want to tell Mike that I love him."

Will looked at her surprise. "Y-you do?"

El nodded, "I heard him when I was in the bathroom, and before we go tomorrow I want him to know I feel the same way."

"That's good," Will said, nodding as he looked back at the fire, "You guys are perfect together."

"You really think so?" El asked.

"I do," Will said standing up, "I really do." He looked at her then with a small smile. "Let's go to bed, we'll have a busy day tomorrow."

El got up and followed him back over to their tents before she quietly stepped back into her tent and laid back down next to Max who was fast asleep now.

She felt her own eyes start to get heavy as she laid back down, but this time she felt something under her pillow. She reached under it and grabbed it, pulling it out she saw it was a tape, words written on it in black marker.

"Music to listen to when you miss it here When you miss us." from Mike.

A word had been crossed out next to 'from', another four-letter word and she knew which one.

She turned to her side still holding it, her eyes getting harder and harder to keep open now.

One summer had changed everything and tomorrow everything would change again.

But she knew just like Will had said it wasn't the ending.

Not for any of them.

AN

That was the last chapter of The In-between. I hope you enjoyed this fanfic and I can't thank you all for making it to the ending. Thank you to everyone who followed and Favorited. The reviews i got always made my day so a big thank you for them. But this isn't the ending go to the 27th chapter to see what comes next.


	27. 27  Thank you

27

Thank you

I just wanted to thank everyone who actually made it to the ending of this novel-length fanfic that took 7 months to write.

I honestly was never sure how it would turn out. Good? Bad? I guess that's not up to me to decide. But it was a lot of fun to write and I feel like the writing actually got a little better by the ending too. I'm a published author now which I wasn't when I started this and the world is nothing like it was when I started as well...it's a weird feeling to think about how in that time things have changed. I was actually going to stop at this fanfic and work on my own story ideas but then ST had to stop filming season 4 so I wanted to write what my own take would be on S4 as just some fun until we get the real season so below this is a sneak peek into my new ST Fanfic. Season 4, Into The Shadows.

1

Have you seen her?

November 1st, 1986.

A tall woman with red hair looked around herself as she stood on the sidewalk in the main street of the sleepy town of Hawkins Indiana. People walked around her hurriedly as they tried to get out of the cold, light snow starting to fall around her.

She let out a foggy breath before she crossed the street to Melvald's General Store.

A bell rang out as she pushed open the door and was greeted with a warmth that helped her racing heart calm. She slowly lowered the black hood of her jacket as she looked around. It was a small store but looked to be well stocked up as a few people milled around picking things up here and there. But she wasn't here to buy anything. No, she was here for answers.

She walked over to the checkout and waited for the older man to be done helping the blonde woman in front of her.

"There you go Mrs. Wheeler, have a good afternoon now," he said handing her the paper bag of groceries, "You better hurry home the snow is really coming down now."

"Thank you, Donald," the blonde woman said as she turned away from him, a raven-haired boy followed after her back out the door letting a breeze of bone-chilling air in before the older man turned to her.

"How can I help you Ms?"

"I'm looking for someone, and I heard they live here," the woman said as she pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and as the older man took it he found it was a photo that had been ripped out in a hurry.

"Have you seen her?" The woman asked as she started to look around herself pushing a piece of hair out of her face nervously.

"This...this is a photo of Hopper's girl."

"Who is Hopper? Where does he live?"

"I'm sorry to say that he passed away last year in a fire, and she was taken to live with Mrs. Byers when they moved away from here," the man said looking back up at her.

"Do you know where they are now?" the woman asked, but her attention was drawn to the window suddenly.

"No she didn't tell many people I'm afraid, just somewhere only a few hours away." the man said following her gaze and saw she was looking at a man in a dark coat on the other side of the street who was talking to someone in a big white van. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, thank you though," the woman said, grabbing the photo and stuffed it back into her pocket before she started towards the door in a hurry.

"Are you sure I can't call someone to pick you up? The snow is turning into a storm now," He called after her but she didn't stop. Couldn't stop.

She stepped back out into the snow that like the man had said started to fall faster now. As fast as she could without drawing attention to herself, she started down the sidewalk for her hotel, but there was no use, the man had already seen her. It was too late and she knew it.

She let out a shaking breath as she sped up and looked behind her shoulder to see the man following right behind her, his head down a hood covering his face.

"Shit," she said under her breath and looked around herself for an escape, the sidewalks now empty, not even cars were driving around. But thankfully she found a light of hope a moment later as she spotted an alleyway, the sound of the footsteps getting closer now.

As the opening of the alley got closer she put on a burst of speed once more just as she turned into the opening and took off in a run.

She didn't dare look back as she weaved her way around boxes and trash, her red hair flying out behind her, before she ran around another corner of a building that she hoped would lead her to another street, a street with more people which meant only one thing. Safety.

But to her horror, she found a tall metal gate barring her way. She ran into it praying it would open but it was chained shut. She listened as the footsteps got closer and before she turned to face him she pulled out a knife.

"You're not going anywhere I see, not this time," the man said in a thick Russian accent.

"When are you going to realize I'll always find a way out?" She asked as behind her back she gripped the edge of the blade, feeling the pain before the warmth of her own blood starting to fall as she pressed the cut hand into the freezing metal of the chain holding the gate. "Realize I'll never go back."

"Ruby don't do-"

She didn't let him finish his sentence as she let the chain fall to the ground and she was able to push the gate open and slammed it shut, the lock bent out of shape as she let her cut hand touched it now keeping it from opening as she made a run for it once again.

The sound of the man hitting the gate in anger echoed out as she made it to the street, she pulled up her black hood as she hurriedly walked down the sidewalk, keeping her face turned away from passers-by. She knew that man would only be minutes away and fewer people that saw her face meant fewer people could tell him which way she went.

The inn she was staying in came into view then and it was only then did she let her breathing calm as she folded the knife back up before putting it in her back pocket as she walked up to the door and opened it.

She got in and closed it quickly after herself, and looked around trying to see if there was any sign of a break-in. But no. Everything was quiet. She could hear the TV going that the old woman who owned this place liked to have on in the next room over, and as Ruby looked in she found Mrs Berry fast asleep in front of it, one of the stories she liked playing.

Feeling her heart calm down more now she made her way up the stairs to her room that she had been staying in for the last week. She closed and locked the door. For a moment she laid an against the door and looked at her hand. The cut she had made almost gone, only a pink line showed that anything had been done to it.

She let out a breath before looking up at the wall that faced the bed where photos hung, alongside news clippings, pages ripped from files, handwritten notes. Red string connecting it all.

Walking over she started ripping it all down and tearing it in half and then again and again until it was nothing more than unreadable pieces. She threw it all into a metal garbage can, she paused a moment looking at all her work gone in a manner of minutes.

She closed her brown eyes for a long second before she went to the dresser at the other side of the room and picked up her lighter but stopped, a sound catching her attention suddenly.

She listened as she moved closer to her door and pressed her ear to the wood.

"And you say you didn't hear her come in?"

"No i haven't seen her, and I'm a very light sleeper so I would have heard something if she did come in ...is she in trouble?" Mrs. Berry asked.

"No, we just need to make sure though, so you more if you don't mind can we look around?" A male voice asked.

"Of course not, go right ahead," the older woman answered.

"God damn it!" Ruby hissed to herself as she stepped away from the door, hearing footsteps slowly make their way up to her room, as if they were trying to be quiet.

She went over to the garbage can and flicked on the lighter. She looked at the small flame for only a moment before she let it fall from her fingertips into the papers.

They caught instantly, the paper turning ashen in only a matter of moments and that was good because just then someone tried to open the door, but thankfully she had locked it as the door handle stuck.

Ruby felt her heart pick up then as she realized there was only one way out for her. The window.

She turned to her dresser and grabbed her bag, the only thing in the world she truly had, with her few clothes and money. Ruby threw it over her shoulder before making her way to the tall window. She pushed open the glass and looked down. A white van had parked just outside her room meaning her fall would still hurt but maybe she would get out of this without breaking more bones than needed as snow fell onto it.

Someone started to slam themselves against the door then, the wooden frame starting to crack and she knew it was now or never.

She didn't have any more time to think about it before she closing her eyes she jumped.

AN

That was half of the first chapter of S4 Into the Shadow see the full chapter posted tomorrow.


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